Ben Shapiro

Ben Shapiro
Born	Benjamin Aaron Shapiro (1984-01-15) January 15, 1984 Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Nationality	American
Alma mater	University of California, Los Angeles (B.A.) Harvard Law School (J.D.)
Occupation	Attorney Author Political commentator Radio talk show host Columnist
Religion	Orthodox Judaism
Spouse(s)	Mor Toledano

Benjamin Aaron "Ben" Shapiro (born January 15, 1984) is an American conservative political commentator, columnist, author, radio talk show host, and attorney.

A native of Los Angeles, California, Shapiro graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles and Harvard Law School. He has written six books, the first of which was 2004's Brainwashed: How Universities Indoctrinate America's Youth, written when he was 17 years old. He currently writes a column for Creators Syndicate and is editor-in-chief at The Daily Wire and editor-at-large for Breitbart News Network. He is the co-founder and former editor-in-chief of the media watchdog group TruthRevolt.^[1]

Early life

Shapiro was born in Los Angeles, California.^[2] Skipping two grades (third and ninth), Shapiro switched between public and private elementary schools. Shapiro graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California, Los Angeles with a Bachelor of Arts in political science in 2004 and graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School in 2007.^[3]

Career

His third book, Project President: Bad Hair and Botox on the Road to the White House, was published by Thomas Nelson in 2008.

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 which it actively promotes through primetime entertainment programming. For the book, Shapiro interviewed many in the entertainment industry.^[4] In an interview with Thom Hartmann on RT's The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann, Shapiro cited the children's show Sesame Street as an example of left-wing propaganda.^[5] Shapiro also interviewed several producers who said that Happy Days and M*A*S*H had an intended pro-pacifist orientation.^[6] Patrick Goldstein of the Los Angeles Times questioned Shapiro citing The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Simpsons as examples, and Goldstein argued that those shows have "gone over like gangbusters with middle America."^[4] The same year Primetime Propaganda came out, Shapiro became a fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center.^[7]

In 2012, Shapiro became editor-at-large of Breitbart.com, a news and opinion website founded by Andrew Breitbart.^[8]

In 2013, Threshold Editions published Shapiro's fifth book, Bullies: How the Left's Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences Americans. Bullies is Shapiro's first book to be listed on The New York Times Best Seller List; the book debuted at #32 in the combined print and e-book nonfiction list on January 27.^[9]

Shapiro writes a column distributed by Creators Syndicate that appears on sites like Breitbart.com and Townhall.com.

On October 7, 2013, Shapiro co-founded the TruthRevolt media watchdog website in association with the David Horowitz Freedom Center. The site was intended to be a conservative counterpart to Media Matters for America.^[10] Shapiro resigned as the site's editor-in-chief in April 2015.^[1]

Gun control debate on Piers Morgan Live

In January and May 2013, Shapiro was invited onto Piers Morgan Live to debate gun control.^[11] Some media reports said that Morgan lost the debate,^[12][13] in which Morgan slammed down a copy of the United States Constitution that Shapiro provided and calling it "your little book." Shapiro called Morgan a "bully" for arguing that conservatives are heartless in the face of gun deaths as opposed to debating the statistics, and Morgan said Shapiro believed that gun rights are meant to provide ordinary citizens the means to defend themselves against government tyranny.^{[14] [15]}

Following the debate, conservative news outlets criticized CNN for liberal bias for posting only a very small portion of the debate, leaving out many of Shapiro's critical conservative points.^[16] Portions that were excised including Shapiro calling out Morgan's position on focusing on a ban for assault rifles when the majority of gun-related crime is perpetrated by those with handguns, as well as disproportionately attacking the National Rifle Association for its broad interpretation of second amendment rights without similarly attacking the American Civil Liberties Union for its broad interpretation of first amendment rights when it comes to citizens' rights to purchase and play with violent video games.

"Friends of Hamas" story

Ben Shapiro at the University of Missouri in November 2015.

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 US Senator awaiting confirmation as Secretary of Defense as a nominee of President Barack Obama. In the article, Shapiro criticized the Obama administration for ignoring his questions about Hagel's foreign associations and called for full disclosure of Hagel's foreign ties.^[17]

On February 20, Slate reporter David Weigel reported that he could not find any convincing evidence "Friends of Hamas" actually existed, based on personal interviews with Senate staffers, the conservative Center for Security Policy, and the US Treasury Department Terror Sponsors list.^[18] Shapiro told Weigel that the story he published was "the entirety of the information [he] had."^[19]

Subsequently, New York Daily News reporter Dan Friedman reported on February 20 that he may have been the unwitting source of the "Friends of Hamas" allegation. Friedman said that the story arose in the course of questioning Republican aides over Hagel's connections to foreign terrorist groups, presuming that one of the aides had interpreted his asking about such political connections as evidence of their existence.^[20] Shapiro responded by reporting that his source had averred that Friedman was not a source.^[21][22]

In an interview with Salon.com, Shapiro said the following in regards to the controversy: “We’re all striving for some semblance of truth, even if there’s angles to it. When people make corrections or find things that I do wrong, it doesn’t upset me. It urges me to do better.”^[23]

Perspective on Israel

In a column written for Townhall.com in 2003, Shapiro proposed to expel the Palestinian population from the West Bank. Journalist Jeffrey Goldberg said, "this was the position of the extremist Meir Kahane, who was banned by the Israeli Supreme Court from participating in Israeli politics because of his racist views."^[24] In the article, Shapiro states that "if Germans, who had a centuries-old connection to the newly created Polish territory, could be expelled, then surely Palestinians, whose claim to Judea, Samaria and Gaza is dubious at best, can be expelled."

A decade later, however, Shapiro abandoned this position. In an article published on March 13, 2013, Shapiro wrote, "Some on the right have proposed population transfer from the Gaza Strip or West Bank as a solution. This is both inhumane and impractical. Moving millions of Palestinians out of areas they have known for their entire lives will certainly not pave the way to peace" and while "both right and left agree that a population separation is necessary," he proposes that Israel "has no choice but to weather [the anti-Israeli propaganda]" until a realistic solution comes to light.^[25]

UCLA BDS proposal

On February 25, 2014, the UCLA Undergraduate Student Association Council (USAC) convened to consider a resolution for the university to join the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement. Shapiro appeared at his alma mater to deliver counterarguments to the resolution that were embraced with wide acceptance from the crowd.^[26] Shapiro pointed out the hypocrisy of the selective moral outrage in targeting Israel for its treatment of the Palestinians, which was described as far less egregious as the human rights violations carries out by other countries such as Saudi Arabia and Iran and by groups such as the Palestinians themselves. He pointed to the differences between Israel and the rest of the countries in the Middle East as it relates to the treatment of sexual and religious freedom and diversity, and made the claim that the BDS Movement is fueled not by true concern for human rights but instead by antisemitism.^[27]

Radio and television

Shapiro guest hosts regularly for major talk show hosts including nationally syndicated hosts Jerry Doyle and Rusty Humphries. From May 2, 2010 to 2011, he hosted The Ben Shapiro Show on the Orlando, Florida talk radio station WEUS.^[28] Shapiro currently acts a co-host on "The Morning Answer" on KRLA 870 Los Angeles and KTIE 590 San Bernardino with Brian Whitman and Elisha Krauss. The show was listed as #80 on Talkers Heavy Hundred list of top 100 radio shows in the country.^[29]

Between January 2014 and August 2015, Shapiro hosted a talk radio program in Seattle with a Bonneville Communications station, KTTH.^[30] Shapiro split time in Los Angeles and continued to broadcast on "The Morning Answer."^[31]

Legal

After graduating from Harvard Law School in 2007, Shapiro briefly practiced law at the Los Angeles office of Goodwin Procter LLP but now does independent legal consulting for major media clients.^[32]

In July 2015, Shapiro and transgender rights activist Zoey Tur were on Dr. Drew On Call to discuss Caitlyn Jenner's receipt of the Arthur Ashe Courage Award.^[33][34] Shapiro announced publicly that he had filed a police report after Tur had grabbed his neck and threatened on air to send him "home in an ambulance."^[35][36]

Personal life

Shapiro married Mor Toledano in 2008; both practice Orthodox Judaism.^[37][38] Together, they have a daughter born in 2014.^[39]

Bibliography

• Brainwashed: How Universities Indoctrinate America's Youth (ISBN 0785261486). WND Books: 2004.
• Porn Generation: How Social Liberalism Is Corrupting Our Future (ISBN 0895260166). Regnery: 2005.
• Project President: Bad Hair and Botox on the Road to the White House (ISBN 159555100X). Thomas Nelson: 2008.
• Primetime Propaganda: The True Hollywood Story of How the Left Took Over Your TV (ISBN 0062092103). HarperCollins: 2011.
• Bullies: How the Left's Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America (ISBN 1476710015). Threshold Editions: 2013.
• The People vs. Barack Obama: The Criminal Case Against the Obama Administration (ISBN 1476765138). Threshold Editions: 2014.

See also

• List of Harvard Law School alumni
• List of syndicated columnists

References

External links

• Shapiro's website
• California Bar profile
• Appearances on C-SPAN
  • In Depth interview with Shapiro, September 1, 2013