If you’re a fan of overpaid American alternative media celebrities, you may have been following the recent s***storm between Steve Crowder and the Daily Wire.
If not, basically Daily Wire offered Crowder a $50 million contract over four years – technically a ‘term sheet’, rather than a formal contract, intended as an initial offer. Crowder rejected this paltry offer, and did it very publicly, claiming that said terms represented a capitulation to Big Tech, and the enslavement of all future conservative creators.
To British ears, the idea of getting 50 million of anything sounds almost beyond belief. But having once been engaged to an American, I can confirm they simply expect a higher standard of living. Confronted with, for example, a normal English hotel room, they immediately ask for an upgrade for no reason other than they ‘don’t like it’. And, shockingly, they usually get it. If British people knew this, the entire system would collapse. Our country relies on mild self-loathing and an almost pathological reluctance to ‘bother’ anyone. However, I digress.
Crowder did not mention the Daily Wire by name in his original YouTube video on the subject, but it was obvious to anyone who follows this stuff that he meant them. Daily Wire founder Jeremy Boreing then ‘owned it’ by fessing up to the appalling $50m offer, and painstakingly going through the contract line by line to explain why he felt it was totally reasonable.
Crucially, Crowder had left out the $50m part, perhaps to garner more sympathy for his plight, or perhaps because it’s extra cool for other people to talk about your $50m offer that you didn’t even bother to mention. Seems like something that’s probably in one of Trump’s books.
Yet Crowder maintains money was never the issue. If we take him at his word, for him it’s about performers retaining control of their content and careers, and not working in league with Big Tech. The latter concerns the fairly aggressive punitive clauses in the contract, whereby if the creator is demonetised by YouTube, Spotify, etc., they lose a large chunk of their fee. He maintains that if a personality like him is under a contractual obligation not to be suspended or shadow-banned by a big platform like YouTube, he will be forced to self-censor – and that means not expressing any conservative views.
The Daily Wire’s counter-argument is that if they stand to lose a huge amount of money from being slapped down by Big Tech, of course they have to protect themselves. Crowder’s claim is that this plays into the hands of those who seek to boycott conservatives (which, as someone who works for a company still struggling to get advertising due to the wretched dweebs at Stop Funding Hate, I can understand).
While Crower’s basic claim sounds reasonable, where he went wrong is in virtually all of his behaviour.
Firstly, he appears to have registered the domain for his own new project, StopBigCon.com, weeks before launching this attack. He then phoned Jeremy Boreing, ostensibly to talk about the contract, but apparently in order to force some kind of confession out of Boreing, as Crowder recorded the call and has now released extracts of it on his YouTube channel.
To me, that immediately ends all claims to moral superiority.
And if Candace Owens is to be believed, the story is even more sordid. She claims Crowder felt the initial offer was a financial insult, prompting him to make a counter offer of $120m. This was deeper than even the Wire’s deep-assed pockets, so they flatly rejected it. Crowder went off in a sulk, then decided to take on the Daily Wire with his own scheme. Hence the recorded phone call and the YouTube videos – all part of the plan to launch Stop Big Con.
In other words, a vengeful and entirely self-serving ego trip from Crowder, covered up with the pompous narrative that he is doing it all for the kidz.
I have to say I find that narrative quite compelling. Especially given Crowder’s questionable character. Aside from recent events, he is said to have treated staff pretty badly in the past, especially former employee ‘Not Gay Jared’, who was forced to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
Not that I’m a massive fan of Ben Shapiro either, but more for some of his opinions than his personal relationships, which I know nothing about. Obviously I cite Shapiro because, as co-founder and the platform’s most famous host, he is synonymous with the Daily Wire brand. Shapiro had some choice words for his old friend Crowder by way of reply to the latter’s airing of the dirty, if remarkably expensive, laundry, calling it a despicable betrayal.
My personal favourite Daily Wire host is Michael Knowles, who has stayed pretty quiet on the whole thing, except for one modest tweet supporting Boreing, and one Dante analogy. Matt Walsh, who also does some great work, has been less restrained.
But despite the robust defence from team Wire, many are siding with Crowder against his evil alt. media would-be overlords. And Crowder perhaps has a point about Big Tech. The Daily Wire’s model is arguably flawed, since it relies on sworn enemies like YouTube to provide revenue. Then again, it is not that surprising Daily Wire would wish to offset their losses if one of their presenters has a big change in fortune. Plus, though he is demonitised, Crowder himself uses YouTube – for example, to make the very videos attacking the Daily Wire. The trick is to do some things on YouTube, then send people towards your premium content, which Crowder also already does.
Plus, as Candace Owens pointed out, Crowder could have just challenged any terms in the document that he didn’t like, which is exactly what she did, in a several month long negotiation. Jordan Peterson’s daughter has since revealed Peterson did the same, and came out with an extremely favourable deal.
So. Is Crowder freedom fighter, or narcissist bully and amateur spy? Are the Daily Wire shrewd but empowering business people, or evil oppressors of talent?
You decide.
I lean towards the Wire on this one, if only because of Crowder’s appalling behaviour recording and releasing the phone call.
As for the contract, I can’t say for sure if I would be able to walk away from $50 million. But I would love the opportunity to find out.
Nick Dixon is Deputy Editor of the Daily Sceptic. You can follow him on Twitter and Substack.
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I don’t enough about all of this to comment on the rights and wrongs, but it does strike me how much more advanced alternative media seems to be in the USA compared to here. I wonder if we will ever catch up.
The slower we ‘catch up’ the better I will like it
Well, the USA seems madder than here, but the opposition to the madness is much stronger. I think whatever comes to the USA will come here, sooner or later, in spades, so opposition here needs to get a lot stronger. We’re still largely asleep – present company excepted.
They are much more commercially confident.
The Daily Sceptic for example.There is no doubt in my mind this can be a challenger publication to the establishment press. I’m so disillusioned with my subscriptions to the Times and The Telegraph. I’ve cancelled my The Times subscription due to their shockingly unacceptable full-on Fascist censorship. The Telegraph is only a tiny bit better and is just hanging in by a thread.
However The Daily Sceptic need an aggressive business plan, proper finance (which also implies taking a risk) and need to charge a subscription. Maybe like the Spectator offering a set number of free articles each month.
Sure the many existing readers will bitch and moan, but I for one would subscribe and I would rather they are a commercial success and rival to the establishment globalist agenda driven press.
I’m happy to pay my £5 a month
Luke Johnson is on the board but I guess he has limited time and would like it to be commercially self sufficient after an initial investment. A big problem is that they are blacklisted by the advertising intermediaries.
You’ve just made me feel bad because I’ve remembered that is an option and I chose to make a once off contribution. So I will put my money where my mouth is and pay a monthly sub. However I do think it should be mandatory. There is no getting away from the fact people either prepared to pay for what you have or they aren’t. IMO hedging around that can only worsen the finances.
I guess the issue is not to put off the casual reader with a paywall but I’m sure there are established approaches to that.
A lot of the BTL community here were indignant about the £5, and some pointed out they had other sites and publications in a similar space to which they subscribed. I have some sympathy for that but I was surprised by those who seemed to think they were entitled to free articles based on their BTL contributions.
I think advertising needs to be part of the mix. There is already some but possibly not paying much.
I’m £10 a month. Probably need to up it a bit. I pay Daily Wire an annual subscription. Daily Sceptic really needs to look into getting some financing from the USA.
Well done. I give to TCW too, though I don’t ever look at it – lack of time…
Fair point about the USA – could be a good market for them
You make a good point. I’d subscribe.
I can confirm that none of this matters to me.
It might not appear to be that important but it could be. Quite a few people I assumed were independent (e.g. Jordan B Peterson, Matt Walsh) have on their Facebook page, “The Daily Wire is responsible for this content” so that’s a bit strange if they’re independent. But who owns the Daily Wire? It’s not easy to find out (I watched a guy going through the process of trying to find out). As we don’t know who owns The Daily Wire, it could mean nothing very much but it could also be a brilliant way of dampening down independent voices?
The penalties in these contracts are massive for missed content and all kinds of other things and of course the enticement of $50 million is an offer most people can’t refuse. And other ways of raising funds are often difficult, one alternative news website recently was denied access to its own bank account, having been banned off all the usual social media sites, down listed by search engines etc . It’s potentially a brilliant scheme, offer ludicrous sums of money to stars/independent voices and penalise them heftily if they stray off course or even take a sick day whilst at the same time, making it hard for truly independent voices to fund themselves. Something to think about – not entirely sure what the answer is apart from as always, support things you don’t want to disappear – shops, cafes, independent voices etc but as usual question everything.
I cannot afford the mental cost of caring about every issue and this one is so far remote from my experience that it is not worth investing in it. I have reached an age and financial status (only modest) where I can plough my own furrow.
Take all your points on board about the continual censorship of any comment that doesn’t fit whatever the current narrative is etc, but can we just put this into perspective? 50 mill over 4 years divided by 365 days/year = $34,246 A DAY. I’d take a few limitations on gobbiness for that sort of cash. Having watched Crowder’s vid it just looked like he was having a hissy fit, and there were/are much more mature ways of dealing with contract negotiations. Perhaps he reckons it’s good publicity.
The key thing is that the term sheet was a starting negotiation draft. Crowder is already demonetised. So was Candace Owens, so that aspect of the terms sheet would be an immediate redline.
Crowder has gone berserk over a terms sheet, to be clear. Essentially, Crowder’s operation is one run by him and his parents and he doesn’t seem to have bothered to get his lawyers involved in negotiations. Candace Owens spent five months in negotiations. Crowder threw his toys out of the pram on day one.
Lauren Chen has done an excellent appraisal of the situation on her YouTube channel. She’s worked for The Blaze and had negotiations with Crowder and The Daily Wire.
the £100K per episode penalty was not for a sick day … it was for a voluntary decision to just not make a show … the ‘sick day’ was $60+K equivalent to the per show fees.
Crowder has been known to just clear off.
“I’m certainly not going to be goaded into a conflict with allies unless I can think of a way to monetize it.” [BabylonB, adapted]
It wasn’t the Daily Wire it was the Babylon Bee.
Yes, BB can always be relied on to take the sting out of a situation.
Meanwhile, in the latter-day sodom and gomorrah known as Davos, megalomaniacs are plotting our enslavement to technology and other worthless idols of the modern age. That seems like the real elephant in the room right now, not some guy and his job contract
Yes it does appear to be the case, that after every Davos, the thumb screw is turned a little more against the pleb. I can’t wait to hear how wonderful they are in whatever format they wish to publish it.
I lean towards the Wire on this one too. Crowder comes across as petulant and entitled. Imagine having to do 190 shows per year for a measly $50m, oh the inhumanity! It’s practically modern slavery.
The fuss about the social media clauses could also be taken out of context although It’s harder to tell on this one. I doubt the Wire rely on YouTube or Facebook revenue whereby they could not cope if a presenter is demonitised, but if Crowder did a YE and got banned entirely then it’s not unreasonable for an employer in the entertainment industry to impose penalties for that.
Agree. Crowder has a point but has used completely dirty and bad faith tactics to make it. It isn’t an exposé that needed to be made like that. If he really felt that strongly (and isn’t acting in bad faith – but I think he is) he should have spoken to the Daily Wire and said, look guys, I think this is a big enough issue for the industry, sorry I’m compelled to talk about it publicly. Even if he gave them no time for a lawyer response before doing so, that would have been a better way to handle it, consistent with someone acting in good faith.
Who are these people? Astonishing that they can be paid so much money and I don’t remotely recognise them or what they do!
Crowder is an idiot. I like what he ofter says, but he seems to have decided to start his own network by trying to destroy the Daily Wire. It’s the old idiocy that infects all sides: the desire for ideological purity. On the right, there is always more individualism and diversity of opinion, because the right doesn’t have the hive mind aim of a communist utopia that the left does. The trouble is that the most prominent voices on the right no only fail to get along, but spend more time slagging each other off than keeping an eye on the enemy. It goes back decades. Ayn Rand, Isabel Paterson, Murray Rothbard, William F Buckley Jr all flirted with each others ideas, but ended up hating each other. The Ayn Rand Institute spends hours slagging off The Objective Standard and The Atlas Society, plus anyone one else vaguely right of centre, acting as if only they know best. The Daily Mail has spent decades slagging off its right of centre ‘rivals’ while pumping out gallons of borderline pornography.
Unfortunately no one seems to get it into their thick skulls that there’s a war going on and we’re losing. Six or seven thousand people globally have got themselves into key positions in politics, big business, the media, civil services, medicine, governments and education and are systematically dismantling Western society… scratch that! … have dismantled Western society. We’re fighting a rearguard action and the people who are supposed to be on our side are too busy measuring the lengths of their d**ks!
I’ve been a Daily Wire subscriber for ages. They’re a good site – an oil billionaire-financed text and streaming site aimed at taking on Hollywood at their own game, making classy documentaries and moving into entertainment. A major part of their deal with Jordan Peterson was that Peterson could guarantee there was somewhere his work could be kept safe as the wolves have been set on him in the public arena. But DW represent one prong in the rearguard action (I’m beyond thinking we can win in our own countries: the best we can hope for is the foundation new countries or havens or ghettos to we which we or our descendants can flee in the next couple of generations.) And Jeremy Boreing is well known as a lover of negotiations. Daily Sceptic is another significant ‘prong’ in the fight.
The right needs to end the infighting. While they slag each other off, the left laughs and continues to hand out puberty blockers to children and teach them horrifying lies in school. And in 25 years’ time, many of us middle aged people will be lying in hospital for some sort of operation while these Red Guard kids will doctors be deciding whether to treat us properly or ‘allow’ us to die on the operating table because they’ve been taught to hate our politics.
Although extremely dark your comment is about right …. sadly.
I’ll keep believing in the white pill though because Ive got a 20 yr old son and have to
Thank heavens I’m not a fan of overpaid American alternative media ‘celebrities’. I do hope this doesn’t disqualify me from the Daily Sceptic?
Of course not. But the alternative scene is more than just media in the USA: it’s becoming a full blown alternative economy. When Harry’s Razors stopped advertising on Daily Wire, tossing a woke hand grenade on the way out talking about a ‘values misalignment’ in order to cozy up to the far left, Jeremy Boreing launched Jeremy’s Razors and they proved to be a big success.
Eric July, rapper and libertarian pundit has launched his own comic book company. So has Ethan Van Sciver, formerly a successful creator at DC Comics. They aren’t creating conservative or libertarian comics: they’re simply creating comics that don’t have woke messaging. For that, they’re under constant attack as ‘far right’.
Unfortunately, this kind of alternative economy doesn’t exist in the UK and the extremists who run our country won’t let it happen. When Gillette went woke and attacked their male customer base, I stopped using them, but I’ve yet to find as good a brand of razor as a replacement, having used them for 30 years!