Blaze Editor Attacks One of His Own Hosts for ‘Bizarre Point of View’ on Ben Shapiro-Candace Owens Drama

 
Blaze Editor Attacks One of His Own Hosts Over 'Bizarre' Ben Shapiro Take

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Internal strife in conservative media is spreading beyond just Ben Shapiro and Candace Owens this week as The Blaze managing editor Leon Wolf penned a column calling out one of his own network’s hosts for a hit piece on Shapiro.

Daily Wire founder Shapiro has been busy dealing with one of his own employees, Owens, for some questionable defenses of Kanye West’s recent troubling statements about Jewish people. Owens joined Daily Wire in 2021 as the company was stepping up its content push, which has also included a move into film production.

Shapiro, who is Jewish, has a long history of calling out anti-Semitism and has not spared his own employee, publicly criticizing Owens recently for “garbage” tweets defending West, who now goes by Ye, and referring to the rapper’s declarations as “disturbing.”

The rapper was suspended from Twitter after announcing he was going “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE,” and Owens was one of the few supporters to actually back him. In one tweet, she even denied his tweet was anti-Semitic and claimed, “it’s like you cannot even say the word ‘Jewish’ without people getting upset in the same way that you’re not allowed to say ‘Black’ anymore.” It should be noted Ye is currently seeking to buy Parler, a social media app headed by Owens’ husband.

The Blaze’s Jason Whitlock is one conservative not happy with Shapiro’s willingness to call out Owens. He authored a post on the matter, accusing Shapiro of being “united” with “BLM black elites” against everyone from athlete Kyrie Irving to Malcolm X.

Like Shapiro, Wolf called out one of his own and held nothing back.

“The reality is this: Throughout history, Jewish people have faced persecution that has been justified by a number of oft-repeated and unjustified tropes, one of which is that they are guilty of ‘dual loyalty,’ under which they are accused of valuing either their allegiance to Israel or to some hidden Jewish agenda over their loyalty to their home country or its ideals or principles,” Wolf wrote.

The editor appears genuinely perplexed by Whitlock’s arguments, taking particular issue with his criticism of Owens being referenced as he was accused of valuing “Israel above free speech.”

“Not only is this claim unfounded, it is contradicted by Shapiro’s entire public career … The sole evidence offered in support of the explosive charge that Shapiro has insufficient loyalty to free speech is that he criticized Candace Owens,” Wolf wrote.

The editor referred to Whitlock’s post as a “bizarre point of view” and noted Shapiro is the “opposite” of a “deplatformer” because even though he’s criticized Owens, he continues to employ the fiery conservative.

One his own hosts, Wolf wrote, was accusing Shapiro of being a “coward” with no evidence.

“Last week, Jason took exception to people who accused him of anti-Semitism without knowing what was in his heart or his mind when he wrote a particular tweet,” Wolf noted. “On the basis of much less evidence, he has accused Ben Shapiro, on the basis of a tweet, of being disloyal to free speech and a coward.”

Catch the full internal drama at The Blaze.

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Zachary Leeman covered pop culture and politics at outlets such as Breitbart, LifeZette, BizPac Review, HollywoodinToto, and others. He is the author of the novel Nigh. He joined Mediaite in 2022.