Steven Crowder calls $50 million transfer offer immoral
Right-wing presenter Steven Crowder claims he was offered $50 million to take his show to conservative news outlet Daily Wire after his contract with another right-wing publication, The Blaze, recently expired.
He turned down the deal with Daily Wire. Crowder believes the outlet and other conservative media bow to big tech, using exploitative contracts that require employees to comply with tech company rules and policies, which he sees as a form of oppression while forcing them to be a produce excessive amount of content. The contract included significant penalties if banned or demonstrated by different platforms.
“Big Tech is in bed with Big Con,” Crowder said, referring to conservative media.
On Tuesday, Crowder published a crushing defeat of conservative media based on a contract he was recently offered. He didn’t name the company, but on Wednesday, Daily Wire co-founder Jeremy Boreing confirmed that it offered the deal to Crowder.
Crowder said the contract contained “unreasonable demands for control” and “immoral terms that actually penalize conservative content creators.” It also included penalties in the millions.
A screenshot of the contract shows that he would have had a quota of 192 shows per year and would be fined $100,000 for any show he didn’t produce under that number “for whatever reason.”
Archives of his show on the Blaze show that Crowder has done over 900 shows since 2018. Each episode ranges in length from 15 minutes to more than three hours, with most lasting around two hours.
The contract also includes a $250,000 penalty for each month or quarter that he does not meet his quota for that period, including both episodes and reading ads on the show.
If he fails to meet his annual quota, he faces a $1 million fine.
If he fails to meet the quota due to a serious illness or disability, the contract would reduce his fee pro rata without those penalties.
Crowder described the content quota as worse than that required by Disney, ABC, CBS and NBC, although he gave no examples of those companies’ contracts.
“This is ownership of you and everything you do,” he said.
The deal included significant penalties if Crowder lost advertisers, received content strikes from, and/or was banned from, major platforms.
He said he initially thought the demonetization clause was a mistake because he had already demonstrated it on YouTube, but said Daily Wire informed him that the clause was included in all contracts.
Crowder has nearly 6 million YouTube subscribers, more than Daily Wire’s biggest figures Ben Shapiro (5.3 million), Candace Owens (1.3 million across two channels), and Matt Walsh (2 million). He has twice as many as Daily Wire itself (3 million).
Crowder blames these contracts for burnout and stress in the industry. He believes that people who enter into these deals are not only bound to unreasonable content production requirements, but are also forced to essentially censor themselves and stop producing outlandish content that violates the rules of social media platforms. platforms could violate.
Most notoriously, Crowder attempted to recreate Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide on his show.
He also said that while he and others believe they are fighting Big Tech, “there is evidence that too many of those in charge of the big conservative platforms are in cahoots with them.” This appears to stem from his belief that the clawback parts of the treaty, which penalize creators for being demonized or suspended from major social media platforms, effectively muzzle them.
Boreing of the Daily Wire posted a response to Crowder’s video on Wednesday. He said some of Crowder’s claims are genuine but false, and that the “significant” offer is fair.
Boreing called Crowder’s commitment to produce 192 episodes a year “above average” but generous considering there are 260 workdays in a year and Crowder takes four weeks of vacation each year.
“It doesn’t really capture the reality that there’s going to be basically 60 days of the year, let’s call them Fridays, that Steven doesn’t have to produce a show,” Boreing said.
“And you might say that’s still a lot. I know Steven says that’s more than even network television would ask for. Well, those are points that can be negotiated.”
The number of episodes a given host does per year varies widely, depending on the frequency of the program and whether the show is on hiatus. Jimmy Fallon does about 180 shows a year, while the host of a weekly show can do about 50.
Boering said most people would find a contract that includes a four-day work week and additional time for vacation and travel appropriate.
“It’s certainly not unfair to expect someone who makes $50 million over the next four years to work 192 days a year,” Boreing said.
Boreing also tried to smooth things over, saying he considers Crowder a friend and encouraging people to keep supporting him.
Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro tweeted von Crowder: “We all wish him the best.”
In his video, Crowder said he hasn’t been happy in a while, partly because he knows what’s going on behind the scenes with conservative media and is considering giving up hosting Louder with Crowder on a regular schedule.
Now he wants to take on conservative media, or what he calls “big fraud”. Crowder offered to produce other people’s content so they wouldn’t have to sign contracts like the Daily Wire offered.
He said he’s ready to give up completely if he doesn’t succeed in becoming a producer of content for others.
“It’s either time for the Mug Club to make it big, or it’s time to go home,” Crowder said.
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https://www.dailydot.com/debug/steven-crowder-daily-wire-contract-jeremy-boreing-ben-shapiro/ Steven Crowder calls $50 million transfer offer immoral