Matt Fradd is just good for the Daily Wire brand right now, which is something he even said in the announcement—that he is happy to use their platform to preach Jesus while that’s good for the brand, and he’ll go somewhere else if/when they dump him. It reminded me of Ralph Martin in that way. Go where God opens the door and shake the dust from your feet when pushed out. As for the third way, I think this is better, honestly. Pints was already as big as if not bigger than just about any Catholic media platform we have right now. Go where the culture is having conversations about truth. Daily Wire is one of those places right now.
Only other way I think would’ve been a university grabbing him. Like, teach for us, and do Pints under our brand. But again, not sure that would’ve made sense for him or if any could’ve offered the same kind of infrastructure that tempted him. Augustine institute, maybe?
This is right. It's fine to have concerns, or be in a "wait and see" mode on this. But the fury was genuinely odd. Unfortunately, Catholics are not impervious to the attitudes of the internet.
I tried for quite a while to get catholic content creators to unify under one brand. Almost all of them were uninterested. I don’t mean big names like Matt Fred, but people who were just about as good but a little easier for me to reach out to because they weren’t so famous and firm on their own leg legs.
My perception is that every catholic content creator is on their own mission and believe that they have either nailed their leash or well soon break through the ceiling that’s preventing them from fully reaching their niche now. I believe we are stronger together, even if some are already un stable legs and finding success. But most people in the Catholic space want to captain their own ship unless there’s big money on the table. That tells me they’re in it for the glory and not really for the true potential success that unifying could bring.
That’s just my input from my own experience in this space as a podcaster and producer
I've been in those conversations myself. I think another piece of it is very few of us have experience in what it means to acquire a brand, so when those conversations come up its intimidating. Am I going to lose the thing I've built?
Also you find this with business owners: people would rather have 100% of a small pie than 10% of a huge pie
You’ve missed the point entirely. You describe DW as a ‘conservative media company.’ In reality it is a Zionist media company. The issue is over ‘kosher Catholicism’ being used to prop up an outfit that is purposed to keep the US and Israel united. Fradd is being used in a larger game most Catholics don’t even know exists.
That's a deflection that reveals to me you don't understand the significance of the period we are living in, though I appreciate the time you took to respond.
Not trying to deflect, I’m just trying to show the bigger picture. Most people don’t make life decisions or content decisions based on whether the state of Israel will benefit from it
I'm old enough to remember when certain Catholics saw Christopher West as a heritic because he had a somewhat public disagreement with Scott Hahn.
I absolutely agree with this assessment. The split in the Church is real, and the two sides of said split are pretty darn monocultural as far as who they'll engage with. I actually just wrote something about that too.
In the spirit of your article, I disagree with a couple points you made toward the end but I agree with most of what you said. There is one answer to you "third option" though: Pelican+, recently founded by @peterkwasniewski and other great Catholics. You might like it! Mr. Fradd should've considered it before DW perhaps.
Pelican+ seems cool and I think they will do well. But i don’t think Fradd joining would have worked based on other platforms attempts I’ve seen.
A technical problem in building the platforms are they need to be a win-win to make business sense. Typically the creator has influence and the platform has money. Fradd has more of both so it wouldn’t make sense to join Pelican+ over DW
I doubt he would have received as much money through kwasniewski’s channel. But, I absolutely agree with you. I do not think this will prove to be a wise choice for Fradd personally.
4th Reason: Sharing a Matt Fradd video on theology, apologetics, or the like will now have a political DW logo included, which may put off potential viewers. It’s less likely to reach (or persuade) people outside of the DW audience.
I’m in a 4th camp that doesn’t understand why we listen to people who speak so rudely about others. A quick scroll through Matt Walsh’s Twitter feed and all I see is harsh language and anger. It’s too bad. You are judged by the company you keep.
That wasn’t mean. Matt Walsh can be nasty. Mother Angelica was truthful and didn’t mind hurting feelings, but Matt Walsh slings mud at times (even if he’s right). She didn’t do that.
Or St. Jerome, or Dorothy Day, etc. Just because someone is a little mean doesn’t mean they’re wrong. The pearl-clutching that I see happening in the Church is pretty nauseating.
As Catholics I think we should do what we can to promote broad ownership. Like Chesterton, I don't like consolodation, on the right or the left. I think we are worse for it. Matt is now an employee of the Daily Wire. I think that's an inferior position to having his own platform, even if it means maximizing his reach and perhaps raising production quality. I think Peterson used to play the middle better than he does now (praying for his swift recovery!), though his actual videos dramatically improved in terms of production. Now he calls Trump a genius like the rest of them; we need to forge our own path as Catholics as we don't fit neatly into mainstream political categories
"He’s now part of a large organization having that conversation: What is true?"
Exactly.
I've followed Daily Wire's OG Matt (Walsh) since he was podcasting in his car about 13 years ago, ranting about shopping carts. He eventually joined The Blaze, and then left that outlet for Daily Wire. Joining DW gave him the ability to not only expand his reach but most importantly to create content that literally has changed the social conversation ("What is a Woman" and "Am I Racist"). He's been able to affect legislation, to speak before Congress, to put his abilities to profound use because he has the resources of DW to do so.
Matt Fradd (whose work I've also enjoyed for a few years now) isn't Matt Walsh and his skills and focus are very different. But he will be able to pursue whatever God has in store for him with far greater effect in cooperation with DW at this time.
That said, there's a season for everything, and nobody in media is a slave. If it doesn't work out, people part ways with organizations all the time.
I just hope Matt doesn’t turn into another Raymond Arroyo. I used to respect him, but as soon as he got in with Laura Ingraham and got a regular gig on Fox, I’ve just completely lost respect for him. He went from comment from a Catholic perspective to his own sort of snarky schtick. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. 🙏🏻
I agree with your general premise that Catholics aren’t good at disagreement. The conservative/liberal divide within the Church seems to only be growing wider. In regards to Matt Fradd and PWA specifically I have a very different take. I don’t consider myself right or left politically; I strive to be unbiased in my politics and just as reasonable and realistic as possible…and IMO the reasonable/realistic and not inherently “right leaning” take is that Matt necessarily will not have the same creative control and he will be subject to the politics of this very obviously right leaning institution, with a clear bias and a clear agenda. Im disappointed he’s losing his independence and I’m disappointed the Free Press Is being acquired by Paramount. Matt had an enormous following without TDW, he didn’t need them, the sacrifice of intellectual freedom isn’t worth it.
Just look at their very first post together today with the caption “The Catholic Wire” where they make a joke about more Catholics being at TDW than at the Vatican…then the comment is made that TDW is “like the Vatican but for straight people” 😬 yiiiikkkees
I can entertain the notion that Mr. Fradd was naive in forming an association with Daily Wire, so I won't accuse him of sin, but this is obviously a ploy by the Zionist Lobby to gain a foot in Catholicism.
Matt Fradd is just good for the Daily Wire brand right now, which is something he even said in the announcement—that he is happy to use their platform to preach Jesus while that’s good for the brand, and he’ll go somewhere else if/when they dump him. It reminded me of Ralph Martin in that way. Go where God opens the door and shake the dust from your feet when pushed out. As for the third way, I think this is better, honestly. Pints was already as big as if not bigger than just about any Catholic media platform we have right now. Go where the culture is having conversations about truth. Daily Wire is one of those places right now.
Yeah that’s what I was thinking. Who could buy Pints? Non profits like Word on Fire cant. Ascension wouldn’t. Who else is there?
Only other way I think would’ve been a university grabbing him. Like, teach for us, and do Pints under our brand. But again, not sure that would’ve made sense for him or if any could’ve offered the same kind of infrastructure that tempted him. Augustine institute, maybe?
Free college tuition for his kids. That would be the ask.
How dare you have a reasonable opinion on this!?
This is right. It's fine to have concerns, or be in a "wait and see" mode on this. But the fury was genuinely odd. Unfortunately, Catholics are not impervious to the attitudes of the internet.
I tried for quite a while to get catholic content creators to unify under one brand. Almost all of them were uninterested. I don’t mean big names like Matt Fred, but people who were just about as good but a little easier for me to reach out to because they weren’t so famous and firm on their own leg legs.
My perception is that every catholic content creator is on their own mission and believe that they have either nailed their leash or well soon break through the ceiling that’s preventing them from fully reaching their niche now. I believe we are stronger together, even if some are already un stable legs and finding success. But most people in the Catholic space want to captain their own ship unless there’s big money on the table. That tells me they’re in it for the glory and not really for the true potential success that unifying could bring.
That’s just my input from my own experience in this space as a podcaster and producer
I've been in those conversations myself. I think another piece of it is very few of us have experience in what it means to acquire a brand, so when those conversations come up its intimidating. Am I going to lose the thing I've built?
Also you find this with business owners: people would rather have 100% of a small pie than 10% of a huge pie
I would love to connect with you!
Me? Did you mean Pat?
Nice take. I think it’s a net win. It literally increased his reach 4-5 fold overnight by leveraging the DW’s built in audience.
You’ve missed the point entirely. You describe DW as a ‘conservative media company.’ In reality it is a Zionist media company. The issue is over ‘kosher Catholicism’ being used to prop up an outfit that is purposed to keep the US and Israel united. Fradd is being used in a larger game most Catholics don’t even know exists.
As much as I think Israel is a problem I don’t think it is a lens through which to view every problem.
And that’s what this seems like from many of the anti-Zionists taking issue with the move
That's a deflection that reveals to me you don't understand the significance of the period we are living in, though I appreciate the time you took to respond.
Not trying to deflect, I’m just trying to show the bigger picture. Most people don’t make life decisions or content decisions based on whether the state of Israel will benefit from it
I have a show on this coming out tonight if you are interested. Here is my YouTube link. Thanks for the reply. https://www.youtube.com/@Stephen_Kokx
I'm old enough to remember when certain Catholics saw Christopher West as a heritic because he had a somewhat public disagreement with Scott Hahn.
I absolutely agree with this assessment. The split in the Church is real, and the two sides of said split are pretty darn monocultural as far as who they'll engage with. I actually just wrote something about that too.
https://substack.com/@emilyhess/posts
In the spirit of your article, I disagree with a couple points you made toward the end but I agree with most of what you said. There is one answer to you "third option" though: Pelican+, recently founded by @peterkwasniewski and other great Catholics. You might like it! Mr. Fradd should've considered it before DW perhaps.
Pelican+ seems cool and I think they will do well. But i don’t think Fradd joining would have worked based on other platforms attempts I’ve seen.
A technical problem in building the platforms are they need to be a win-win to make business sense. Typically the creator has influence and the platform has money. Fradd has more of both so it wouldn’t make sense to join Pelican+ over DW
Then an important qualifier should be added: the one that will make the most money, which pretty much rules out the third option.
* @profkwasniewski
I doubt he would have received as much money through kwasniewski’s channel. But, I absolutely agree with you. I do not think this will prove to be a wise choice for Fradd personally.
Yeah, I disagree
Unsubscribed!
4th Reason: Sharing a Matt Fradd video on theology, apologetics, or the like will now have a political DW logo included, which may put off potential viewers. It’s less likely to reach (or persuade) people outside of the DW audience.
I’m in a 4th camp that doesn’t understand why we listen to people who speak so rudely about others. A quick scroll through Matt Walsh’s Twitter feed and all I see is harsh language and anger. It’s too bad. You are judged by the company you keep.
If you think Matt is mean, you would've hated Mother Angelica.
REAL
I don’t think you can compare Mother A and Walsh.
I'd argue you most certainly can: https://www.churchpop.com/mother-angelical-liberal-church/
That wasn’t mean. Matt Walsh can be nasty. Mother Angelica was truthful and didn’t mind hurting feelings, but Matt Walsh slings mud at times (even if he’s right). She didn’t do that.
Like I said elsewhere, the pearl-clutching makes me nauseous.
Or Padre Pio, for that matter. He wasn't exactly gentle with unrepentants in the confessional.
Or St. Jerome, or Dorothy Day, etc. Just because someone is a little mean doesn’t mean they’re wrong. The pearl-clutching that I see happening in the Church is pretty nauseating.
Dorothy Day was more of a narcissist than a Christian. I wouldn’t give her any credibility if she told me 2+2 = 4.
Now there’s a take. I’d love for you to expand on that.
I meant to say “Marxist” but it came out “narcissist.” So much for AI, taking over the world.
Mother Angelica would never go to the Daily Wire. Are you serious?
Did I say that she would?
As Catholics I think we should do what we can to promote broad ownership. Like Chesterton, I don't like consolodation, on the right or the left. I think we are worse for it. Matt is now an employee of the Daily Wire. I think that's an inferior position to having his own platform, even if it means maximizing his reach and perhaps raising production quality. I think Peterson used to play the middle better than he does now (praying for his swift recovery!), though his actual videos dramatically improved in terms of production. Now he calls Trump a genius like the rest of them; we need to forge our own path as Catholics as we don't fit neatly into mainstream political categories
"He’s now part of a large organization having that conversation: What is true?"
Exactly.
I've followed Daily Wire's OG Matt (Walsh) since he was podcasting in his car about 13 years ago, ranting about shopping carts. He eventually joined The Blaze, and then left that outlet for Daily Wire. Joining DW gave him the ability to not only expand his reach but most importantly to create content that literally has changed the social conversation ("What is a Woman" and "Am I Racist"). He's been able to affect legislation, to speak before Congress, to put his abilities to profound use because he has the resources of DW to do so.
Matt Fradd (whose work I've also enjoyed for a few years now) isn't Matt Walsh and his skills and focus are very different. But he will be able to pursue whatever God has in store for him with far greater effect in cooperation with DW at this time.
That said, there's a season for everything, and nobody in media is a slave. If it doesn't work out, people part ways with organizations all the time.
Great point
I just hope Matt doesn’t turn into another Raymond Arroyo. I used to respect him, but as soon as he got in with Laura Ingraham and got a regular gig on Fox, I’ve just completely lost respect for him. He went from comment from a Catholic perspective to his own sort of snarky schtick. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. 🙏🏻
I agree with your general premise that Catholics aren’t good at disagreement. The conservative/liberal divide within the Church seems to only be growing wider. In regards to Matt Fradd and PWA specifically I have a very different take. I don’t consider myself right or left politically; I strive to be unbiased in my politics and just as reasonable and realistic as possible…and IMO the reasonable/realistic and not inherently “right leaning” take is that Matt necessarily will not have the same creative control and he will be subject to the politics of this very obviously right leaning institution, with a clear bias and a clear agenda. Im disappointed he’s losing his independence and I’m disappointed the Free Press Is being acquired by Paramount. Matt had an enormous following without TDW, he didn’t need them, the sacrifice of intellectual freedom isn’t worth it.
Just look at their very first post together today with the caption “The Catholic Wire” where they make a joke about more Catholics being at TDW than at the Vatican…then the comment is made that TDW is “like the Vatican but for straight people” 😬 yiiiikkkees
I can entertain the notion that Mr. Fradd was naive in forming an association with Daily Wire, so I won't accuse him of sin, but this is obviously a ploy by the Zionist Lobby to gain a foot in Catholicism.
Go touch grass.