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Steven Crowder

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Steven Crowder
Crowder in 2019
Born
Steven Blake Crowder

(1987-07-07) July 7, 1987 (age 37)
Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
Citizenship
  • Canada
  • United States
Alma mater
Occupations
  • Political commentator
  • media host
Years active1999–2009 (actor)
2009–present (commentator)
Spouse
Hilary Korzon
​
​
(m. 2012; sep. 2021)​
Children2
YouTube information
Channel
Years active2016–present
Genre(s)Politics, Opinion
Subscribers5.74 million[1]
Total views1.9 billion[1]
100,000 subscribers
1,000,000 subscribers
Last updated: October 14, 2024
Websitelouderwithcrowder.com

Steven Blake Crowder (/ˈkraʊdər/ ⓘ; born July 7, 1987) is an American-Canadian[2] conservative political commentator.

Early in his career, Crowder worked for Fox News and posted satirical videos on conservative media platforms. He then began hosting Louder with Crowder, a daily political podcast and YouTube channel with commentary segments. It includes a recurring segment called "Change My Mind", in which Crowder invites passers-by to converse. In December 2012, Crowder and members of Americans for Prosperity were involved in an altercation at a demonstration in Michigan concerning the state's recently passed right-to-work law.[3]

Crowder's YouTube channel has been demonetized twice, first in 2019 after repeated use of racist and homophobic slurs.[4][5][6][7] His channel was re-monetized after YouTube said Crowder addressed his behavior and content,[8] and it was demonetized again in March 2021, with uploads suspended for a week, after violating YouTube's presidential election integrity policy against advancing false claims about the election's integrity.[9] YouTube suspended the channel again for two weeks in October 2022 for violating its harassment, threats and cyberbullying policy.[10] The channel had 5.8m+ subscribers as of May 2023.[11] Crowder moved his show to Rumble in March 2023.[12]

Early life

Crowder was born on July 7, 1987, in Detroit, Michigan. He has an older brother named Jordan. His mother was French Canadian, and at the age of three, his family moved to the Montreal suburb of Greenfield Park, Quebec, Canada where he would live for the rest of his childhood.[13] Crowder attended Centennial Regional High School in Longueuil, and at the age of 18, he moved back to the United States.[14] Crowder attended two semesters at Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont.[15]

Career

Early career and Fox News

At age 12, he worked as a voice actor for the character Alan "The Brain" Powers on the children's television series Arthur.[16] He began performing stand-up comedy at age 17. He then acted in a number of films, including the role of Doug Moore in the 2009 movie To Save a Life. From 2009 to 2012, Crowder worked for Fox News.[15]

By 2009, Crowder regularly posted satirical videos on politically conservative media, including Pajamas Media[17] and later at Andrew Breitbart's Big Hollywood. Crowder served as the master of ceremonies at the 2011 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC),[18] and generated some controversy with a rap video he premiered at CPAC 2012.[19]

December 2012 union protest

Crowder speaking at the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference

At a December 2012 protest, Crowder was punched repeatedly in the face by a union member who claimed he was acting in self defense after being pushed to the ground.[20][15]

Crowder and members of Americans for Prosperity were at a demonstration in Michigan concerning the state's recently passed right-to-work law.[3] The incident began with an attempt by union activists to tear down the Americans for Prosperity tent, which was eventually successful. During the altercation, Crowder was punched several times by a union activist. Crowder posted an edited video of the incident to his YouTube channel that cut footage of the alleged assailant being pushed to the ground and getting back up, right before throwing the punches at Crowder. However, Fox News' broadcasts of the incident included footage of the man being pushed. The New York Times stated, "The same footage also shows that Mr. Crowder had his hand on that man's shoulder just before he tumbled to the ground, but, while the camera does not capture the whole sequence of events, it seems likely that the man was knocked to the ground as members of the two sides pushed against one other, not shoved down by Mr. Crowder."[20] Crowder later released an unedited copy of the video.[21]

An AFL–CIO spokesman, Eddie Vale, stated that the organization did not condone the tearing down of the Americans for Prosperity tent or the violence against Crowder and his group.[22]

In March 2013, Ingham County Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III declined to press charges against anyone involved in the December 2012 altercation. According to Dunnings, his office was originally sent an edited version of the video of Crowder's altercation. However, upon reviewing the unedited version, the prosecutor's office decided not to pursue the case because the union member had acted in self-defense.[23][15]

Louder with Crowder

Crowder hosting Louder with Crowder, 2019

In October 2013, Fox News ended its relationship with Crowder. This was announced shortly after Crowder made negative statements about Fox News host Sean Hannity and about Fox News.[15] In 2017, the Louder with Crowder program, featuring mainly comedic content and political commentary, became a daily program featured on Conservative Review's new streaming service, CRTV. On December 3, 2018, CRTV merged with Glenn Beck's TheBlaze,[24] where Crowder was hosted until December 2022,[citation needed] alongside his YouTube channel, which has existed since 2009.[15][25][26]

"Change My Mind" is a regular segment conducted by Crowder in which he sits at a table with a sign including the phrase "Change My Mind" and invites people walking by, often students at a university campus, to change his mind on a controversial subject. A photograph of Crowder seated behind a sign in February 2018 reading "Male Privilege is a Myth | Change My Mind" outside the Texas Christian University campus became an Internet meme.[27][28][29] Variations of the meme often feature humorously controversial statements in place of "Male Privilege is a Myth", such as "Pineapple goes on pizza".[30][31]

Francesca Tripodi, a sociologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said that Crowder is "very popular, especially among young, conservative voters".[26] Stanford researcher Becca Lewis told Bloomberg News that while Crowder does not directly express white nationalist views, his channel "has some of the most overt racism of any of the shows I've looked at".[26] Crowder's channel faced similar criticism after he described CBS reporter Betty Yu's face as "aggressively Asian", with CBS and KPIX-TV condemning what they described as the "horrific, racist comments" and "demeaning Asian stereotypes" on his show.[32][33][34]

"America Is Superior [To Every Other Country], Change My Mind"

Crowder's show has also seen success on Apple's podcast list, having remained on the top 100 list over the course of 2020.[35] On YouTube, the Louder with Crowder podcast has 5.94 million subscribers and his secondary channel CrowderBits has approximately 1.21 million subscribers.[36][37]

Violations of online policies

In June 2019, YouTube investigated Crowder for his use of racist and homophobic slurs towards Carlos Maza in multiple videos reacting to the Vox series Strikethrough, which Maza hosts. Crowder referred to Maza using homophobic slurs and mocked his voice while sometimes wearing an offensive shirt.[38] Maza expressed disappointment in YouTube for not providing enough protection against alleged harassment.[4] Vox Media's The Verge published an article stating that Crowder's videos "routinely contain egregious violations of YouTube's policies against cyberbullying".[39] Crowder responded with a video where he said his use of slurs was "playful ribbing" on his comedy show and that he is opposed to doxxing and harassment.[40][41]

While YouTube acknowledged that Crowder's language was hurtful, it initially concluded that "the videos as posted don't violate our policies", determining Crowder had not encouraged his viewers to harass or dox Maza and that the main point of his video was to respond to opinion.[42] The decision to not suspend the channel drew considerable criticism.[4] The next day, YouTube suspended the channel's monetization, describing the objectionable content as "a pattern of egregious actions harmed the broader community".[43] The reversal of the decision not to suspend the channel drew considerable criticism as well.[44][45] In August 2020, YouTube re-monetized some of Crowder's content on the site, stating that Crowder's content had since become compliant with YouTube policy.[46]

Crowder announced in February 2021 that he filed a lawsuit against Facebook, alleging he was unfairly censored by the platform.[47] The next month, YouTube suspended Crowder's channel for one week claiming that he violated the presidential election integrity policy by advancing false claims about the 2020 United States presidential election in Nevada and again indefinitely demonetized his account.[48] His account was then given a second strike on the platform for "reveling in or mocking" the killing of Ma'Khia Bryant in a video he posted, and Crowder responded by announcing that he had filed a lawsuit against YouTube seeking an injunction.[49]

In October 2022, Crowder's YouTube channel was suspended for two weeks for violating its policy on harassment, threats and cyberbullying. In response, Crowder stated that the suspension constituted election interference because his content is political in nature, he has a large viewership, and the timing of the suspension lasted through the November 2022 midterm election day.[10] In May 2023, Crowder's channel was suspended again after having posted an episode of Louder with Crowder that featured Alex Jones as guest host, as it violated policies prohibiting videos created or hosted by personalities whose accounts have been terminated.[50]

Dispute with The Daily Wire

In January 2023, Crowder revealed on Louder with Crowder that he had received a term sheet from a conservative media outlet that he left unnamed. Crowder listed the offer's stipulations that, if he were to be demonetized or removed from platforms such as YouTube, Facebook or the iTunes Store, his payment would be cut substantially during that period. He criticized this as a symptom of right-wing media not fighting back against, but rather implicitly condoning, what he considered censorship by Big Tech, stating that "Big Tech is in bed with Big Con".[51]

It was later confirmed that the unnamed media outlet was The Daily Wire. Jeremy Boreing, the CEO of The Daily Wire, claimed Crowder had misrepresented the terms of the contract and that the contract would have paid Crowder $50 million over four years. Furthermore, Boreing asserted that the stipulation was necessary to ensure profitability.[52]

On March 3, 2023, Crowder announced on Russell Brand's show that he would be moving his show to Rumble.[12] In August 2023, Vanity Fair reported that the show's viewership on Rumble was declining following the dispute with Daily Wire as well as other controversies and lawsuits over sexual harassment. Crowder announced he was partnering with Alex Jones, as well as comedians Nick Di Paolo, Josh Firestine, and Bryan Callen, to offer an expanded version of his Mug Club to be streamed via Rumble.[53]

Personal life

Crowder is a Christian. He married Hilary Korzon in August 2012 and wrote about what he considers the benefits of remaining abstinent before his marriage.[54]

In July 2021, Crowder underwent a surgical operation in which titanium bars were inserted into his chest in order to counteract his congenital condition of pectus excavatum (sunken chest).[36][55] The surgery caused fluid to accumulate in his lungs, which he called "excruciatingly painful". Several weeks later, he was rushed to the hospital due to a collapsed lung.[56]

In August 2021, his wife gave birth to twins, a son and a daughter.[57]

Allegations of spousal abuse

In April 2023, Crowder stated on his channel that his wife Hilary had filed for divorce in 2021.[58][59] In the video, Crowder was critical of Texas's no-fault divorce laws.[60][61] Shortly after Crowder's announcement, journalist Yashar Ali released a video he claimed was given to him by Hilary which shows Crowder berating Hilary while she was pregnant. In the video, Crowder berated Hilary for failing to perform her "wifely duties" and told her to "fucking watch it" when she accused him of abuse.[60]

Filmography

Year Film Role Notes
1999 The Bone Collector Extra
2000–2001 Arthur Alan 'The Brain' Powers Voice
2000 Arthur's Perfect Christmas
2001 Two Summers Friend
2002 Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat Mung Voice
2005 3 Needles Depanneur Manager
2006 The Covenant Party Kid
2007 The Secret Classroom Boy
2008 Bend & Break Blake
The Velveteen Rabbit Baseball Boy #1
Greek Jace
2009 To Save a Life Doug Moore

References

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