'We’re not going away': Conservatives build own media ecosystem to fight cancel culture

Editor's note: This is the third in a series of columns exploring the future of the Republican Party and the conservative movement. 

Conservative America is going its own way. And it has realized that, to a substantial degree, it can.

As much as they bemoan progressives' zealotry for rooting their political opponents out of institutional and social life, many conservatives have come to embrace the potential that modern technology offers for birthing ecosystems of cultural, social and informational independence.

Yet, as Americans, we remain in a political union, and changes on the right inevitably give shape to our national politics. So what sort of conservative movement arises out of this emerging parallel society?

Ben Shapiro grows media giant

The conservative movement, manifest in flourishing media platforms such as The Daily Wire, sees itself as responding to the forces of exile coming from the cultural left.

“There’s been a widespread feeling among people on the right in the United States that they are being excluded from all of the major institutions of American life,” Daily Wire founder Ben Shapiro said in a recent podcast after once again finding himself on the receiving end of a prominent left-leaning organization’s social sanction.

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After renting a booth to Daily Wire, the annual conference Podcast Movement issued a profuse apology in response to complaints following Shapiro’s surprise visit to the convening. Organizers said in a Twitter post, which has now been removed, “We take full responsibility for the harm done by his presence. … In 9 wonderful years growing and celebrating this medium, PM has made mistakes. The pain caused by this one will always stick with us.”

The reaction from the Daily Wire team and their many fans and sympathizers online was furious. Amazingly, Podcast Movement later apologized to Shapiro for their initial apology.

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But Shapiro called out liberal commentators and podcasters who stayed silent in the face of his post-hoc cancelation. He did so in terms that set the stage for the conservative movement’s larger dissent from the institutional mainstream, a phenomenon within which The Daily Wire is leading the way.

"Your silence is rather deafening," Shapiro said. "If you want parallel economies, if you want parallel podcasting universes, if you want parallel advertising, if that’s what you want, that is what you’re going to get and you’re going to get it right in the face.”

Shapiro then told the story of Jeremy’s Razors, a Daily Wire-affiliated company launched by co-founder Jeremy Boreing after a company called Harry’s Razors “pulled their advertising and ripped into our listeners” for political reasons. Jeremy’s Razors has proved wildly successful, cutting into the consumer base of The Daily Wire’s erstwhile sponsor.

“We are willing to do this to all of you,” Shapiro said. “Because if you wish to excise us, if you wish to cast us out into the cornfield, we’re not all just going away. Half the country isn’t just going away.”

Shapiro's influence is growing rapidly. The Daily Wire, which launched in 2015, reports about 900,000 subscribers who pay $8 to $14 a month. Shapiro has more followers for his personal Facebook page than traditional media heavy-hitter The Washington Post.

In addition, The Daily Wire boasts of the most popular conservative podcast in the nation, newly developed children’s content, a range of popular merchandise, documentaries and full-length feature films.

Jordan Peterson joined Daily Wire

It also has consolidated some of the most popular voices in and beyond the country on its roster of talent. Key among them is evolutionary psychologist, author and professor Jordan Peterson, whose opposition to Bill C-16 in Canada launched him on an improbable journey to become a high-profile conservative influencer and one of the most listened to critics of left-wing identity politics in the world.

“I recently joined forces with The Daily Wire in a new venture they call DailyWire+,’" Peterson said in a YouTube video. "The plan is to build a multimedia empire offering services on the philosophical, educational, journalistic and entertainment front, including movies, TV shows and media for children, and an empire that will not fall prey to the woke authoritarianism that has become increasingly mandatory in so many places, including, let’s say, the once great Disney.”

As voices like Peterson, Dennis Prager (founder of the online video series PragerU) and others join under the banner of The Daily Wire, other popular personalities such as Dave Rubin of The Rubin Report are joining ranks with networks such as Glenn Beck’s BlazeTV.

Rising conservative political stars, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, also are making their presence felt on these platforms.

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Florida welcomed Shapiro and Rubin in their exodus from California under Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. Texas boasts not only of Beck as a resident but also independent podcast giant Joe Rogan, who although not a conservative was warmly welcomed by Gov. Greg Abbott.

What has emerged are conservative media networks based in conservative states and supported by conservative politicians. Together, they are creating a new culturally conservative landscape.

Increasingly, the conservative movement of the moment is one of cultural entrepreneurialism that strategically enlists sympathetic Americans, their clicks and their dollars.

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And, as an independent conservative culture grows, Shapiro, Peterson and many others are inoculated from the effects of mainstream cancellation. At the same time, conservative audiences shield themselves from what they see as the subversive cultural impact of "woke" society.

Conservative media hold new clout

The phenomenon, in some ways, isn't new. Going back to at least the 1960s and '70s, evangelical Christian media – print, radio and television – grew into an ecosystem that effectively shielded evangelical America from the mainstream.

In the 1980s and beyond, conservative talk radio blanketed the airwaves and gave voice to a new generation of anti-big-government Republicans, and Fox News came of age as the information arm of a Republican administration that would rewrite the rules of American foreign policy in the early 2000s.

Nonetheless, this moment is different. Conservatives and liberals have never sought to divorce themselves from each other within the context of American civil society in quite the way they do today, and the technology had never existed to scale this social separation in the way it does now.

Politicians such as DeSantis might always have had more reason to read The Wall Street Journal than other newspapers because it was a portal to their constituents. But the intimacy with which a Rubin or Shapiro can not only interview but also bring their mass (yet close-knit) audiences into a live arena or the governor’s mansion itself for a conversation makes the new media conservative ecosystem one that binds rising political voices to families of support in ways that are much thicker than in times past.

It is hard to say how this affects the policy focus of Republican politicians. If politics is downstream of culture, it is perhaps fair to say that these media ecosystems make it easier for politicians to swim upstream to the river’s source to more directly influence the culture that produces our politics.

At the very least, it allows politicians to grow closer to the pundits and personalities who hold this influence. The Daily Wire's media campaigns against the "wokeism" of Disney converged seamlessly with DeSantis’ battles with Disney in Florida, which ultimately cost the corporation its special tax status after its public criticism of the state's “Don’t Say Gay" legislation.

As these forces joined together, DeSantis became more and more a champion for viewers and members of The Daily Wire. Even while Donald Trump builds his own social media platform and collects allies in the space of cultural conservative entrepreneurialism, platforms like The Daily Wire could be demonstrating their own king-making capacity as they direct the attention of conservative voters to potentially more viable candidates.

Is all of this good for society at large? It is good in a democracy for conservatives and liberals to build spaces and platforms that allow for their voices to be heard. Yet, to the degree it portends an increasingly divided society, it is something to bemoan.

But it also suggests that the conservative movement may be far more resilient than progressive critics give it credit for. If that proves true, it will not be for the first time.

John Wood Jr. is a columnist for USA TODAY Opinion. He is national ambassador for Braver Angels, a former nominee for Congress, former vice chairman of the Republican Party of Los Angeles County, musical artist, and a noted writer and speaker on subjects including racial and political reconciliation. Follow him on Twitter: @JohnRWoodJr 

More from John Wood Jr.:

Red and blue America don't trust each other. And that's driving us dangerously apart.

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White privilege may be real, but economic class is a bigger factor in driving inequality.

Meet the team

COLUMNISTS: Ingrid Jacques, Chris Schlak, Tim Swarens, John Wood Jr.
EDITORS: Kristen DelGuzzi, Louie Villalobos, Thuan Le Elston, Tim Swarens
DIGITAL PRODUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT: Ryan Marx, Reid Williams
SOCIAL MEDIA, ENGAGEMENT AND PROMOTION: Janessa Hilliard

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ben Shapiro's Daily Wire media empire takes on liberal cancel culture