Skip to main content
  • Online media
  • Tariffs
  • Epstein
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • RSS
  • Take Action
  • Search
  • Donate

Media Matters for America

  • News & Analysis
  • Research & Studies
  • Audio & Video
  • Archives

Media Matters for America

  • Nav
  • Search
  • News & Analysis
  • Research & Studies
  • Audio & Video
  • Archives
  • Online media
  • Tariffs
  • Epstein
  • Take Action
  • Search
  • Donate
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • RSS

VIDEO: The Daily Wire's obsession with violence

Written by Gideon Taaffe

Research contributions from John Knefel

Published 02/12/24 12:30 PM EST

As right-wing blog The Daily Wire expands its reach, it has also stepped up calls for violence against LGBTQ people and others. 

Founded in 2015 by Ben Shapiro and Jeremy Boreing, The Daily Wire has grown beyond its significant Facebook following — recently signing a streaming deal with X (formerly Twitter), pouring $100 million into new children's programming, and producing feature-length movies. But amid all these efforts to expand The Daily Wire into new markets, its hosts have continued pushing bigoted, extreme rhetoric targeting trans people, unhoused people, health care providers, and more. 

Daily Wire personalities often use a rhetorical device called stochastic terrorism, a process of associating marginalized groups with vile or disgusting acts in order to incite violence against them.

Hosts Matt Walsh, Ben Shapiro, and Candace Owens frequently uses their programs to attack doctors who provide gender-affirming care, even smearing a children's hospital by claiming children were being tortured and mutilated there while dismissing the potential harm that could result from their words. Then, when the hospital received a bomb threat, Walsh dismissed concerns by suggesting that liberals were responsible.

Stochastic terrorism can result in real harm, and The Daily Wire has become a platform for amplifying these calls for violence.

The Latest

  1. Benny Johnson responds to Wall Street Journal reporting about Trump and Epstein: “The scandal is in who wrote the story. Oh, yeah, baby.”

    Video & Audio 07/18/25 11:01 AM EDT

  2. Media Matters weekly newsletter, July 18

    Narrative/Timeline 07/18/25 10:44 AM EDT

  3. Right-wing media figures lose it over Chip and Joanna Gaines putting a gay couple on TV

    Research/Study 07/18/25 9:35 AM EDT

  4. Newsmax host: “Fox News has been essentially mandated not to talk about” Epstein

    Video & Audio 07/18/25 8:44 AM EDT

  5. On MSNBC, Angelo Carusone discusses how the WSJ's Trump/Epstein story will land in the new atomized media landscape

    Video & Audio 07/17/25 8:57 PM EDT

Pagination

  • Previous page ‹‹
  • …
  • Current page 31
  • …
  • Next page ››

In This Article

  • The Daily Wire

    daily wire_mmfatag
  • Matt Walsh

    Matt Walsh tag
  • Ben Shapiro

    Ben-Shapiro-MMFA-Tag.png
  • Candace Owens

    Candace-Owens-MMFA-Tag.png

Related

  1. Media Matters weekly newsletter, August 15

    Narrative/Timeline 08/15/25 10:44 AM EDT

  2. Ben Shapiro: “The Smithsonian has had some problems being infiltrated by woke”

    Video & Audio 08/14/25 2:07 PM EDT

  3. Daily Wire host says the Supreme Court should have “the fortitude, the courage, the vision” to overturn same-sex marriage

    Video & Audio 08/14/25 10:38 AM EDT

Media Matters for America

Sign up for email updates
  • About
  • Contact
  • Corrections
  • Submissions
  • Jobs
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • RSS

© 2025 Media Matters for America

RSS