Perspective: Hello, Hollywood? It’s time to get nervous
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A holiday novel titled “Christmas Karol” looks much like any hardcover book on the shelves of Barnes & Noble, with an attractive cover, a sturdy binding and an engaging story that offers a modern-day twist on the Charles Dicken classic.
What’s markedly different, however, is the publisher — and an author’s bio in which Faith Moore proudly says that she’s a stay-at-home mom.
“Christmas Karol” is published by Daily Wire Books, a division of the conservative media company founded by Ben Shapiro and Jeremy Boreing. Their company is at the forefront of a sea change in how some social conservatives spend their leisure time.
Entertainment can be as partisan as politics, and Americans who have grown tired of, as some say, “giving money to people who hate us” have numerous conservative media companies competing for their leisure time — and expendable income.
The latest player is the Tucker Carlson Network, which the former Fox personality launched Dec. 11, promising subscribers not only political commentary and interviews, but also “full-length films and documentaries” that will be available in the spring.
TCN follows on the heels of a rebranding of Glenn Beck’s media company to a subscription-based model with expanded content. Beck, who has long billed himself as “the fusion of entertainment and enlightment,” is best known for his radio work, but he is also a prolific author (with his own Christmas book), and his Blaze Media produces both his TV show and also forayed into film this year.
These companies may struggle, however, to keep up with The Daily Wire and the decades-old powerhouse of conservative entertainment, Fox, which dominates cable news with its talk, news and comedy shows, films on the streaming service Fox Nation, and yes, its own publishing imprint. (The latest is a cookbook authored by Fox & Friends First host Carley Shimkus, and last year, Fox published “All-American Christmas” by Rachel Campos-Duffy and Sean Duffy, who shared holiday memories, photographs and recipes from Fox personalities.)
With so many entertainment options being marketed to conservatives, Hollywood and legacy publishers should be nervous. There are only so many hours in an evening, and the content that’s coming out of The Daily Wire, which is also branching into children’s entertainment with a “woke-free” division called Bentkey — is enough to keep a family entertained all week.
Speaking to Piers Morgan this fall, The Daily Wire’s Boreing said that Bentkey is “not overtly political. We’re overtly political as a company, of course, but our content at Bentkey is not.” He added that Bentkey is “really just a place where kids can sit down, actually enjoy entertaining content, and parents don’t have to worry about having these sort of destructive ideas of the moment inoculated into their children.”
Bentkey is currently promoting a Christmas special called “The Greatest Gift” that features Muppet-like characters reminiscent of “Sesame Street.” Notably, in the trailer, the characters talked about Christmas rather than generic holidays, and a nativity scene hints of a religious theme.
Boreing has said The Daily Wire’s entertainment for adults doesn’t aspire to “complete ideological purity” because he thinks that unyielding slant “actually results in being unentertaining.” Still, some of the company’s offerings would struggle to find a home elsewhere.
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Moore, the author of “Christmas Karol,” told me that she approached The Daily Wire in part because she believed the message of her book — “it is far better to have what matters than to have it all” — wouldn’t resonate outside of conservative circles. The book is about a career-obsessed mother named Karol Charles who, like Ebenezer Scrooge, has a supernatural experience on Christmas Eve that causes her to reevaluate her life choices.
“When this idea first came to me, I thought, no traditional publisher will publish this because it’s all about staying home with your kids and not being a workaholic. There’s no way I could pitch this to a traditional publisher or even a traditional agent,” said Moore, who self-published a previous book, “Saving Cinderella.”
She said she appreciates The Daily Wire, not only because it operates like a traditional publisher in that it offered her an advance and royalties, but because it gives conservative creators a home.
“There are all of these stories that people like me want to tell, but traditional publishers won’t touch ... The Daily Wire was the right fit for me,” she said, adding, “I find it amazing that (The Daily Wire) exists.”
Moore’s book is available in bookstores, on The Daily Wire website and on Amazon, which also carries other Daily Wire books, even controversial ones written by Matt Walsh, a leading critic of the transgender movement.
The year 2023 has been good to The Daily Wire and other conservative providers of entertainment, as backlash to progressive ideologies has been growing fast and furious. And while they’re far from wielding the influence of Hollywood or even Fox News, these companies have big plans, and big money to carry them out. While a subscription service, the Tucker Carlson Network was seeded with a $15 million investment. The Daily Wire has said it will spend $100 million over three years as it develops Bentkey.
And it was no coincidence that The Daily Wire announced its children’s entertainment division on the 100th anniversary of the day that Walt Disney started his company, with The Daily Wire saying that Bentkey would create “the next generation of timeless stories that transport kids into a world of adventure, imagination and joy.”
In other words, The Daily Wire intends for Bentkey to be the next Disney — Disney as it was before the company went “woke.”
Can these ambitious conservative media companies succeed? It depends, in part, on whether Hollywood has finally gotten the message that they disdain social conservatives at their own risk. If theaters, television and bookstores brim with content that’s wholesome and uplifting, and not profane or blasphemous, Hollywood and legacy publishers might yet have a chance.
If not, there are more options than ever before, many of them quite good. Conservatives learned how to flex in 2023 — and it isn’t just beer that gets Bud Lighted.
Correction: A previous version of this article said that “Christmas Karol” is not available in bookstores. A spokesperson for The Daily Wire said that it is available through Barnes & Noble and other stores.
