Daily Wire gets gag order against Candace Owens despite Ben Shapiro debate offer
The right-leaning news and commentary site Daily Wire obtained a gag order against former host Candace Owens despite co-founder Ben Shapiro claiming he wanted to publicly debate her about Israel and antisemitism, according to a report.
The Daily Wire secretly sought to muzzle Owens through a private arbitrator after she left the company in March, wrote Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald in his Locals newsletter on Thursday.
The gag order was approved as Shapiro and Daily Wire CEO Jeremy Boreing were publicly negotiating with Owens on an agreed-upon venue, date and time for a debate that had been widely anticipated by readers and viewers on social media.
Boreing told Greenwald that his report “is inaccurate to the point of being false.”
He did not elaborate.
“I’m sure you can appreciate how fraught a high-profile break-up like this is. For that reason, we are trying to resolve our issues with Candace privately,” Boreing is quoted as telling Greenwald.
Owens told Greenwald she “can neither confirm nor deny” his report.
“I wish I could comment on this but I can’t.” she said:
The Post has sought comment from Daily Wire and Owens.
According to Greenwald, the gag order bars Owens from making any comments that could disparage Daily Wire or be perceived as harming its reputation.
An arbitrator agreed with Daily Wire’s contention that Owens’ social media posts on X challenging Shapiro to a debate while questioning his views on Israel were “disparaging,” Greenwald reported.
Prior to her departure from Daily Wire, Owens was one of the site’s most popular hosts.
She joined the Daily Wire in 2021 after having come to prominence as a black conservative who was urging African-American voters to “BLEXIT” — a term meant to connote the abandonment of the Democratic Party.
After the Hamas terrorist attacks of Oct. 7, which claimed the lives of nearly 1,200 Israelis, Owens was publicly critical of Israel’s military response, accusing its government of committing “genocide” against the Palestinians in Gaza.
Shapiro, an Orthodox Jew and a fervent supporter of Israel, blasted Owens, saying her behavior was “absolutely disgraceful.”
In November, Shapiro’s fans on social media demanded that Daily Wire fire Owens over her comments, but Boreing wrote on social media: “[E]ven if we could, we would not fire Candace because of another thing we have in common — a desire not to regulate the speech of our hosts, even when we disagree with them. Candace is paid to give her opinion, not mine or Ben’s.”
“Unless those opinions run afoul of the law or she violates the terms of her contract in some way, her job is secure and she is welcome at Daily Wire,” according to Boreing.
Owens then made other comments that prompted accusations of antisemitism, including a reference to a “gang” in Hollywood that was doing “horrific things.”
She also liked an X post which made mention of an antisemitic conspiracy theory about Jews being “drunk on Christian blood.”
Despite Boreing’s pledge that the company would not fire Owens over her views on Israel, Daily Wire did just that, according to Greenwald.
“The company had concluded that her increasingly vocal criticisms of Israel, opposition to US financing of it, and her views on antisemitism were incompatible with the Daily Wire’s policies,” Greenwald wrote on Thursday.
