The Daily Wire is Not Collapsing

If you’re a consumer of mainstream news, you might be under the impression that The Daily Wire, the conservative news company and website founded by Ben Shapiro, is foundering, flailing and even fading into the liberal night.

After all, just consider some of the recent headlines:

From New York Magazine: “Why Ben Shapiro’s Media Empire is Collapsing”

Or The Washington Post: “Inside Ben Shapiro’s MAGA Meltdown”

“The Daily Wire was once ascendant in right-wing media,” writes the Post. “Now the ‘anti-woke’ company faces contentious layoffs, ideological battles and dwindling relevance online.”

Whenever liberal news outlets begin rolling out some of the same themes regarding conservatives, I’m reminded of the late radio talk legend Rush Limbaugh exposing the mainstream media’s penchant for coordinated messaging by stringing together soundbites echoing the same word or phrase uttered by dozens of national hosts concerning a particular topic on a specific day.

It was as if a talking points memo had been faxed or emailed from a single source. It very well may have been.

Well, in the case of The Daily Wire, as Ronald Reagan liked to say, “There they go again.”

While it’s true our friends out of Nashville have had to do some rightsizing by trimming some staff members of late, any news of their demise and waning influence is wildly exaggerated and downright untrue.

The Daily Wire’s eleven separate podcast shows collectively rank 6th in the world and reach 41 million people per month.

For contrast, the Washington Post’s print circulation declined 21% year-over-year and now stands at 87,600 physical papers printed each day. They have 2.5 million digital subscribers.

Founder Ben Shapiro addressed his company’s status on Friday and offered some commentary not only about The Daily Wire’s critics, but also a strong message concerning their convictions and resolve in the face of dissenters.

“According to New York Magazine, the future of conservatism isn’t traditional conservatism,” Shapiro stated. “You know, like free markets, like equal rights before law, like checks and balances, like traditional virtue. That’s done.”

Instead, liberal pundits are falsely claiming that the new emerging conservatism features the likes of Nick Fuentes, Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens and Megyn Kelly.

“We all have our fan base,” Shapiro observed. “Those people have significant audience numbers. But they don’t have any real institutional influence. They are not institutions.That’s not true of The Daily Wire. We’re big enough that people care when we trip up. And, of course, like any business, we have our ups, we have our downs.”

He’s right. The very fact that so many outlets are writing and even salivating over layoffs at The Daily Wire is an indication of the outlet’s significant influence. But the media’s interest is more than mere observation or even clicks on a website. 

“Something very clear going on here,” Shapiro noted. The media left, and the woke right, that’d be like, Candace and Fuentes and Tucker and Megyn, all of them. Together, the new left. They are attempting to destroy traditional conservatism. That’s the whole thing here. See, The Daily Wire is the largest traditional conservative media company in the digital space.”

He continued:

“There’s a lot of rich disagreement here at The Daily Wire. But, in the end, what we stand for here at The Daily Wire is pretty simple. Truth. And virtue. And freedom. And that is what the new left, meaning the old left and the horseshoe right, would love to destroy. It’s why the attacks have been coming fast and furious for weeks now. They want to destroy traditional conservatism. It is their goal in life.”

Shapiro went on to note that many of the disgruntled don’t want to be lectured. 

“Well, it turns out sometimes in life, people need lectures in decency, in reason, and in truth,” replied Shapiro. “You know, people who smear the wives of murdered men or cover for people who smear the wives of murdered men. Those people deserve lectures.”

Shapiro went on to concede that he can’t project where this media upheaval is going.

“Maybe it will turn out that the future of the right, perverted by the algorithmic insanity of the internet, is ‘sloppilism’ … grievance conspiracism … kookery … Maybe Idiocracy wasn’t a satire. Maybe it was a prophetic documentary.”

But then here is how he concluded:

“I got into politics because I cared about the truth. About saying things that I believe to be eternal and true. Because I care about the ideas of conservatism. It’s why I’ve done that for all these years. I care about free markets. And I care about private property. And I care about equal rights before the law. And checks and balances. And the Constitution. I care about all of those things. I care about the America that the founders promised us.

“And the America that our parents and grandparents fought and worked for. And I’m not going to lie for cash. I’m not going to do it. I’m not going to tell you about the wonders of Moscow’s supermarkets. Or the glories of Sharia law in Qatar. I’m not going to pander for clicks by pretending that Erika Kirk might have been complicit in Charlie Kirk’s murder. Or that perverse and malicious questions about TPUSA’s cover-up are somehow a bizarre form of investigative journalism.”

Ben Shapiro went on to note that he’s been engaging in the world of ideas and advocating for truth for twenty-five years.

“My worldview has not changed. It has not changed. My principles haven’t changed. Because I think those principles are true and good. And those principles are not going to change. So, in the end, take it or leave it.”

Focus on the Family has been in the arena for nearly fifty years. While the ministry’s mission is far broader and distinctly Christian compared to The Daily Wire’s outreach and goals, we share an appreciation and devotion to communicating truth.