PragerU: Difference between revisions
when referring to people, we use "who" or "whom", not "that" which is used for non-human objects |
Undid revision 929684841 by Atsme (talk) Agreed however the “that” applies to "an American non-profit organization" not "Dennis Prager.” |
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| website = {{URL|https://www.prageru.com/}} |
| website = {{URL|https://www.prageru.com/}} |
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}}'''PragerU''', short for '''Prager University''', is an American [[non-profit organization]] co-founded by talk show host and writer [[Dennis Prager]] |
}}'''PragerU''', short for '''Prager University''', is an American [[non-profit organization]] co-founded by talk show host and writer [[Dennis Prager]] that creates videos on various political, economic and philosophical topics from a [[Conservatism in the United States|conservative]] or [[Right-wing politics|right-wing]] perspective.<ref name=":02">{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-45247302|title=Facebook apologises to right-wing site|date=July 20, 2018|work=BBC News|access-date=July 23, 2018|language=en-GB}}</ref> The videos are posted on [[YouTube]] and usually feature a speaker who lectures for about five minutes.<ref name="Globe2">{{Cite news|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2016/10/14/youtube-restricts-access-dershowitz-video/BpnEzzb6VS2U3VZU0tetlI/story.html|title=YouTube restricts access to Dershowitz video|author=Hiawatha Bray|date=October 14, 2016|newspaper=[[The Boston Globe]]|access-date=August 28, 2017}}</ref> The organization relies on donations, and much of the early funding came from [[hydraulic fracturing]] billionaires [[Dan and Farris Wilks]].<ref name="buzzfeed_2018-03-032" /> |
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PragerU is not a university or [[academic institution]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.newsweek.com/google-classifies-conservative-videos-pornography-dennis-prager-university-tech-hearings-1449474|title=Google classified Lincoln speech, Dershowitz videos as "pornography," Prager University founder tells Fox News|last=Fearnow|first=Benjamin|date=2019-07-16|website=Newsweek|language=en|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2019-08-08|df=mdy-all}}</ref> It does not hold classes, does not grant certifications or diplomas, and is not [[Higher education accreditation|accredited]] by any recognized body.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.prageru.com/faq|title=Frequently Asked Questions|last=|first=|date=September 5, 2015|work=PragerU|access-date=March 15, 2019|language=en}}</ref> |
PragerU is not a university or [[academic institution]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.newsweek.com/google-classifies-conservative-videos-pornography-dennis-prager-university-tech-hearings-1449474|title=Google classified Lincoln speech, Dershowitz videos as "pornography," Prager University founder tells Fox News|last=Fearnow|first=Benjamin|date=2019-07-16|website=Newsweek|language=en|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2019-08-08|df=mdy-all}}</ref> It does not hold classes, does not grant certifications or diplomas, and is not [[Higher education accreditation|accredited]] by any recognized body.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.prageru.com/faq|title=Frequently Asked Questions|last=|first=|date=September 5, 2015|work=PragerU|access-date=March 15, 2019|language=en}}</ref> |
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Revision as of 15:49, 7 December 2019
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| Formation | 2009 |
|---|---|
| Founders | Dennis Prager Allen Estrin |
| Website | www |
PragerU, short for Prager University, is an American non-profit organization co-founded by talk show host and writer Dennis Prager that creates videos on various political, economic and philosophical topics from a conservative or right-wing perspective.[1] The videos are posted on YouTube and usually feature a speaker who lectures for about five minutes.[2] The organization relies on donations, and much of the early funding came from hydraulic fracturing billionaires Dan and Farris Wilks.[3]
PragerU is not a university or academic institution.[4] It does not hold classes, does not grant certifications or diplomas, and is not accredited by any recognized body.[5]
History
PragerU was founded in 2009 by conservative radio talk show host Dennis Prager and radio producer and screenwriter Allen Estrin,[6] in order to present conservative views and to offset what Prager regards as the undermining of college education by the left.[2][7] PragerU is based in the San Fernando Valley; it had more than 20 employees as of March 2018.[3]
Since a lawsuit over the use of a photograph in 2013, PragerU has used animation in its videos.[8] As of November 2018[update], its YouTube channel includes 482 videos.[9] The organization depends on donations. According to its CEO, Marissa Streit, a group of approximately 500 students called "PragerFORCE" promotes its videos.[7] PragerU reached a billion views in 2018.[3]
In October 2017, PragerU filed a federal lawsuit against Google, claiming that 37 of its videos on YouTube were unfairly demonetized or flagged so that they could only be viewed with "restricted mode filtering" (which limits views based on certain characteristics, including the age of the viewer).[10] PragerU claimed that Google's actions violated the First Amendment. In March 2018, the case was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh, who ruled that because Google was a private company, PragerU had failed to show that it had infringed its free speech rights.[11][12][13]
In August 2018, PragerU criticized YouTube for adding fact-checks to YouTube videos which cover climate change.[14]
Also in August 2018, Facebook removed two PragerU videos from its platform, later restoring the videos, saying that they "were mistakenly removed".[1][15] According to Francesca Tripodi, professor of sociology at James Madison University, there are plausible non-ideological explanations for Facebook's removal of several of the videos.[16]
PragerU consistently spends more on Facebook advertising than major political campaigns and national advocacy groups.[17] It ranks among the 10 biggest political spenders on the platform.[17]
Content
PragerU releases one video per week on various topics from a conservative viewpoint. PragerU largely avoids mentioning President Donald Trump. Each video costs between $25,000 and $30,000 to create.[3]
Videos on PragerU have defended capitalism, argued against a $15 minimum wage, argued that gun ownership is a constitutional right, and argued that the media cannot be trusted. In one video, Dave Rubin argues that "racism, bigotry, xenophobia, homophobia, and Islamophobia" are "meaningless buzzwords". In a video on the topic of the alt-right, Michael Knowles argues that it is similar to the American Left, saying "the alt-Right has nothing in common with conservatism, and is in fact much closer to leftism... Except of course, the left is much, much larger."[3] In 2018, PragerU published an anti-legal immigration video by Michelle Malkin, a conservative known for defending the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.[18]
Other PragerU videos defend the Electoral College, arguing that "pure democracies do not work" and that the Electoral College thwarts voter fraud.[6] In more than a dozen videos, PragerU promotes fossil fuels and disputes the scientific consensus on climate change; in one of the organization's videos, viewed over 1.5 million times, fossil-fuel proponent Alex Epstein promotes misinformation about climate change, including false and misleading claims.[19] According to Mother Jones, still other videos argue there is no police discrimination toward African-Americans, and the gender pay gap does not exist.[6]
PragerU has developed two partnership programs to help cultivate relationships with educators.[20] PragerU's Educator Program supplies teachers with lesson plans and study guides that accompany their videos. Additionally, secondary school teachers and college professors can register their classes through PragerU's Academic Partnership program, which lets students sign up and allows teachers to monitor their students' progress.[20]
Funding
Much of the early funding for PragerU came from hydraulic fracturing billionaires Dan and Farris Wilks.[3] Two members of the Wilks family are on PragerU's board.[3] The next-largest donor is the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation.[6][21] Other donors include the Morgan Family Foundation, Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, Donors Trust, and the Minnesota-based Sid and Carol Verdoorn Foundation, led by former C.H. Robinson CEO Sid Verdoorn.[21]
The organization has a $10 million annual budget, of which it spends more than 40% on marketing.[3] PragerU has become one of the largest spenders on Facebook advertisements, consistently outspending major political campaigns on the website.[17]
Reception
The PragerU videos have been watched more than 2 billion times, and have become influential on college campuses.[17]
The Southern Poverty Law Center reports that Historian Kevin M. Kruse has described a PragerU video as false revisionism. The video, entitled "Why Did the Democratic South Become Republican?" and hosted by political scientist Carol M. Swain, discussed the Republican Party's "Southern strategy" of the late 1960s. According to Kruse, the video presented a distortion of history, cherry-picked its evidence, and was an "exercise in attacking a straw man".[22]
In an article for the American Conservative, historian and philosopher Paul Gottfried, who has written extensively on the subject of fascism, harshly criticized a PragerU video hosted by Dinesh D'Souza which maintained that fascism was a leftist ideology. D'Souza maintained that Italian philosopher Giovanni Gentile, who influenced Italian fascism, was a leftist, to which Gottfried noted that this contradicted the research by "almost all scholars of Gentile’s work, from across the political spectrum, who view him, as I do in my study of fascism, as the most distinguished intellectual of the revolutionary right."[23][24]
Alex Nowrasteh of the Cato Institute criticized a PragerU video by Michelle Malkin as being anti-immigration. Nowrasteh said that the video was "rife with errors and half-truths, leaves out a lot of relevant information, and comes to an anti-legal immigration conclusion that is unsupported by the evidence presented in the rest of the video."[18]
Regarding the PragerU video "The Suicide of Europe" by Douglas Murray, ADL fellow Mark Pitcavage has said that he does not consider it fascist or white nationalist, but that the video is prejudiced, and he says that it contains anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric that would certainly be agreeable to white supremacists.[21]
Vanity Fair said PragerU "packages right-wing social concepts into slick videos" and that PragerU was "one of the most effective conversion tools for young conservatives."[25]
Sociologist Francesca Tripodi described the effect of PragerU's videos in a report for the Data & Society Research Institute.[26] In a 2018 study, Tripodi used Candace Owens and James Damore as case studies in order to demonstrate that there is a Youtube algorithmic connections between Fox News, PragerU, and alt-right YouTube personalities.[26][22] Tripodi wrote that PragerU relies on "search engine optimization and suggested content to elevate their messaging," and that PragerU's content "allows for those who identify as mainline conservatives to gain easy access to white supremacist logic."[22] On page 36 of her report, Mrs. Tripodi observed that PragerU was very popular among the respondents who participated in her study. She noted that regardless of age, all participants in her study confirmed either having liked or shared PragerU videos on Facebook. Mrs Tripodi also concedes that PragerU videos "start with a very basic truth, and then toe this line really well between valid critiques of liberal ideology and propaganda.”[3]
A Buzzfeed News article published in 2018 attributed PragerU's success to the quality of its production values compared to similar outlets, and to its use of popular presenters with established audiences. The article also noted that it had received comparatively little attention from news and media analysts due to PragerU's lack of coverage of topical issues, such as Donald Trump.[3]
References
- ^ a b "Facebook apologises to right-wing site". BBC News. July 20, 2018. Retrieved July 23, 2018.
- ^ a b Hiawatha Bray (October 14, 2016). "YouTube restricts access to Dershowitz video". The Boston Globe. Retrieved August 28, 2017.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Bernstein, Joseph (March 3, 2018). "How PragerU is winning the Right Wing culture war without Donald Trump". BuzzFeed. Retrieved March 12, 2018.
- ^ Fearnow, Benjamin (July 16, 2019). "Google classified Lincoln speech, Dershowitz videos as "pornography," Prager University founder tells Fox News". Newsweek. Retrieved August 8, 2019.
- ^ "Frequently Asked Questions". PragerU. September 5, 2015. Retrieved March 15, 2019.
- ^ a b c d Oppenheimer, Mark (March–April 2018). "Inside the right-wing YouTube empire that's quietly turning millennials into conservatives". Mother Jones. Retrieved May 25, 2018.
- ^ a b Klug, Lisa (June 14, 2017). "Super-conservative PragerU aims to arm pro-Israel students for their campus 'wastelands'". The Times of Israel. Retrieved August 28, 2017.
- ^ Donnelly, Madaline (November 4, 2015). "How Dennis Prager's conservative online university reaches millions". DailySignal.com. Retrieved August 20, 2018.
- ^ "Uploads from PragerU". YouTube. Retrieved November 14, 2018.
- ^ Mullin, Joe (October 25, 2017). "PragerU sues YouTube, says it censors conservative videos". Ars Technica. Retrieved November 13, 2017.
- ^ Neidig, Harper (27 March 2018). "Judge dismisses lawsuit alleging Google censorship of conservative YouTube videos". TheHill.
- ^ Stempel, Jonathan (March 27, 2018). "Google defeats lawsuit claiming YouTube censors conservatives". Reuters.
- ^ Prager University v. Google LLC, Order Granting Defendants' Motion to Dismiss (N.D. Cal. March 28, 2018).
- ^ Hirji, Zahra (August 7, 2018). "YouTube Is Fighting Back Against Climate Misinformation". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved August 8, 2018.
- ^ Asher Hamilton, Isobel (August 21, 2018). "Facebook apologizes to right-wing group PragerU after being accused of censoring its videos". Business Insider. Retrieved August 23, 2018.
- ^ Schwartz, Oscar (2018-12-04). "Are Google and Facebook really suppressing conservative politics?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-11-24.
- ^ a b c d "How a Los Angeles-based conservative became one of the internet's biggest sensations". Los Angeles Times. 2019-08-23. Retrieved 2019-11-20.
- ^ a b Nowrasteh, Alex (September 26, 2018). "PragerU's "A nation of immigrants" video has serious problems". Cato at Liberty. Cato Institute.
- ^ McCarthy, Joseph (December 18, 2018). "A Course in Climate Misinformation: How Prager U. Is Propagating Climate Misinformation". The Weather Channel.
- ^ a b Shea, Brie (April 30, 2015). "Fracking Titans Spend Millions Proselytizing School Children". Rewire.News. Retrieved December 28, 2018.
- ^ a b c Kotch, Alex (December 27, 2018). "Who Funds PragerU's Anti-Muslim Content?". Sludge. Retrieved December 28, 2018.
- ^ a b c Kelley, Brendan Joel (June 7, 2018). "PragerU's Influence". Hatewatch. Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved September 8, 2018.
- ^ Gottfried, Paul. "Right-wing Celebrities Play Fast and Loose With History". The American Conservative. Retrieved 2019-09-27.
- ^ Molloy, Parker. "PragerU relies on a veneer of respectability to obscure its propagandist mission". Media Matters for America. Retrieved 2019-09-27.
- ^ Nguyen, Tina (December 9, 2018). "'Let Me Make You Famous': How Hollywood Invented Ben Shapiro". Vanity Fair. Retrieved December 24, 2018.
- ^ a b Tripodi, Francesca (2018). "Searching for Alternative Facts: Analyzing Scriptural Inference in Conservative News Practices" (PDF). Date & Society Research Institute. Retrieved December 31, 2018.
