Ben Shapiro
Benjamin Aaron Shapiro (born January 15, 1984) is an American lawyer, columnist, author, and conservative political commentator. He writes columns for Creators Syndicate, Newsweek, and Ami Magazine, and serves as editor emeritus for The Daily Wire, which he co-founded in 2015. Shapiro is the host of The Ben Shapiro Show, a daily political podcast and live radio show. He was editor-at-large of Breitbart News from 2012 until his resignation in 2016. Shapiro has authored sixteen books.
For the American documentary director, see Ben Shapiro (director).
Ben Shapiro
- Attorney
- businessman
- columnist
- media personality
- political commentator
4
Abby Shapiro (sister)
Mara Wilson (cousin)
Early life and education
Shapiro was born on January 15, 1984,[1] in Los Angeles, California, to a Conservative Jewish family. He is Ashkenazi Jewish.[2][3][4][5] When he was 9 years old, his family began to observe Orthodox Judaism.[5] He started playing violin at a young age[6] and performed at the Israel Bonds Banquet in 1996 at age 12.[7] His parents both worked in Hollywood. His mother was a TV company executive, and his father, David Shapiro, worked as a composer.[4]
Skipping two grades (third and ninth), Shapiro went from Walter Reed Middle School in The Valley to Yeshiva University High School of Los Angeles in Westside, Los Angeles, where he graduated in 2000 at age 16.[8][9] He studied political science at the University of California, Los Angeles, graduating in 2004 at age 20 with a B.A. degree, summa cum laude, and membership in Phi Beta Kappa. He then attended Harvard Law School, graduating in 2007 with a J.D., cum laude.[10]
Career
Law
After graduating from law school, Shapiro entered private practice at the law firm Goodwin Procter, but left after 10 months.[11] As of March 2012, he ran an independent legal consultancy firm, Benjamin Shapiro Legal Consulting, in Los Angeles.[9] Having published his fourth book in 2011, it is unclear as to how involved Shapiro was in this firm.
Author
Shapiro became interested in politics at a young age. He started a nationally syndicated column when he was 17, becoming the youngest nationally syndicated columnist in the United States,[9] and had written two books by age 21.[12][13]
In his first book Brainwashed: How Universities Indoctrinate America's Youth (2004), Shapiro argues that the American Left has ideological dominance over universities and that professors do not tolerate non-left opinions.[14][15]
In 2011, HarperCollins published Shapiro's fourth book, Primetime Propaganda: The True Hollywood Story of How the Left Took Over Your TV, in which Shapiro argues that Hollywood has a left-wing agenda that it actively promotes through prime-time entertainment programming. In the book, the producers of Happy Days and M*A*S*H say they pursued a pro-pacifist, anti-Vietnam-War agenda in those series.[16] Shapiro also became a fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center.[17]
In 2013, Threshold Editions published Shapiro's fifth book, Bullies: How the Left's Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences Americans.[18]
In 2017, he released his first and to date only fiction novel, True Allegiance.[19]
In 2019, Shapiro published the book The Right Side of History: How Reason and Moral Purpose Made the West Great, which focuses on the importance of "Judeo-Christian values" and laments the decline of those values in modern America.
In 2021, Shapiro published the book The Authoritarian Moment, which argues that there is not a pressing authoritarian threat in U.S. politics from the right-wing. Rather, he argues that the authoritarian threat comes from the left's control of academia, Hollywood, journalism, and corporate America.[20]
Breitbart News
In 2012, Shapiro became editor-at-large of Breitbart News, a website founded by Andrew Breitbart.[21] After Breitbart came under the leadership of Steve Bannon, Shapiro attempted to distance himself from him.[22][23]
On February 7, 2013, Shapiro published an article citing unspecified Senate sources who said that a group named "Friends of Hamas" was among foreign contributors to the political campaign of Chuck Hagel, a former U.S. Senator awaiting confirmation as Secretary of Defense as a nominee of President Barack Obama, but weeks later Slate reporter David Weigel reported there was no evidence such a group existed.[24] Shapiro told Weigel that the story he published was "the entirety of the information [he] had."[25][26][27] Shapiro later expressed regret over publishing the story.[28]
In March 2016, Shapiro resigned from his position as editor-at-large of Breitbart News following what he characterized as the website's lack of support for reporter Michelle Fields in response to her alleged assault by Corey Lewandowski, Donald Trump's former campaign manager,[29][30] in spite of video and eyewitness evidence of the assault.[31][32] In his resignation statement, Shapiro stated, "Steve Bannon is a bully, and has sold out [the late Breitbart.com founder Andrew Breitbart's] mission in order to back another bully, Donald Trump; he has shaped the company into Trump's personal Pravda".[33] After Shapiro's departure, Breitbart published a piece, falsely attributed to Shapiro's father's pseudonym, saying, "Ben Shapiro betrays loyal Breitbart readers in pursuit of Fox News contributorship," which Breitbart later deleted.[34][35] Despite being critical of Bannon, Shapiro defended Bannon when he was accused of antisemitism.[36]
Personal life
In 2008, Shapiro married Mor Toledano, an Israeli medical doctor of Moroccan descent,[177][178] and they lived in Los Angeles.[4] The couple has two daughters and two sons.[179][180] They practice Orthodox Judaism.[181]
In 2019, the FBI arrested a man from Washington for making death threats against Shapiro and his family.[182][183]
In September 2020, Shapiro announced that he and his family were leaving California.[184] While he relocated the headquarters of his Daily Wire enterprise to Nashville, Tennessee, he and his family resettled in Florida.[185][186]
Shapiro's sister, Abigail Shapiro, who studied operatic singing, is a conservative media influencer who posts videos on her YouTube channel "Classically Abby".[187] She has been subjected to online antisemitic trolling due to her brother's high public profile.[188]
Shapiro is a cousin of Mara Wilson.[189]