Listen to any recent show from Megyn Kelly, Ben Shapiro, Tucker Carlson, Mark Levin, or Candace Owens, and you’ll likely hear shots fired from one to the other.
Those conservative podcasters have been taking aim at one another, with Shapiro and Carlson, Shapiro and Owens, Kelly and Levin, Kelly and Shapiro, Levin and Carlson, and Owens and Levin all trading barbs in recent weeks.
The arguments have ranged from charges of anti-Semitism to reactions to questions abounding following the murder of Charlie Kirk, Carlson’s interview with Nick Fuentes, and virtually everything else under the sun. Hardly a day goes by that there aren’t personal insults — following criticism of the other’s stances on a given item — hurled during a given podcast episode.
Some in conservative media have remained silent on the topic. Others have dipped their toes into the waters on social media, sharing their displeasure with the situation. Barrett Media spoke with two nationally syndicated news/talk radio hosts to gauge their feelings about the topic.
Erick Erickson said his nationally syndicated show’s data shows that there just flat out isn’t much interest in the drama related to conservative political infighting.
“We have researched who my audience is, and it is 30 and 40-something parents, who want to know what the news of the day is, so they can go back to their lives,” Erickson said. “They listen to me to know what’s going on in the world. They do not care about the soap opera. I don’t care about the soap opera. And it is a soap opera … I don’t care about it. I don’t talk about it. My audience wants to know what’s actually happening in the world that matters to them and none of that matters to them.”
Erickson admitted that he is concerned about the rise of anti-Semitism from some members of conservative media, like those embracing Nick Fuentes.
He added that he believes the in-fighting stems from the hosts being egged on by social media followers, with those podcasters losing sight of what actually matters.
“My prevailing theory on this is that everyone doing it has become captured by Twitter,” Erickson said. “And the conversations on Twitter, I think, are poisoning a lot of conservative media. If you start talking about this Twitter stuff on talk radio, your audience is like ‘I don’t even know what you’re talking about.'”
Barrett Media spoke with another nationally syndicated news/talk host — who did not wish to be identified, specifically pointing to the conduct of fans of Candace Owens in the process — about the situation.
This host shared that they believed that Megyn Kelly, Tucker Carlson, and Candace Owens were in the wrong for their embrace of anti-Semitic stances and figures like Fuentes. They backed Mark Levin and Ben Shapiro, before agreeing with Erickson.
“We try to put together a show every day that is informative, entertaining, and engaging,” the nationally syndicated host said. “Where does talking about why some of the biggest conservatives in podcasting are bickering with one another fit into that? It doesn’t, so it’s never on our radar. On X? Yes, my X audience might care what I have to say, because the bickering happens there. But taking online arguments to my show isn’t going to be of the utmost importance for me or the audience.”
They added that they don’t believe anyone — whether it’s the audience, Megyn Kelly, Tucker Carlson, Ben Shapiro, Candace Owens, and Mark Levin, or the conservative moment — wins when there’s public mudslinging.
“I don’t think it’s our job to influence the midterms. But this doesn’t help, if you believe it is our job to do so,” they concluded. “I’ve always tried to rise above tarnishing the reputation of fellow conservatives in the media. It’s something I hope these folks learn, too. Sooner rather than later. We’ll all be better off when this is over.”
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Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing daily news stories, features, and opinion columns. He joined Barrett Media in 2022 after a decade leading several radio brands in several formats, as well as a 5-year stint working in local television. In addition to his work with Barrett Media, he is a radio and TV play-by-play broadcaster. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
Conservative broadcasters who lament the infighting among their right-wing brethren are myopic. Talk radio has been a cesspool of reactionary, antisemitic rhetoric for years – going back to Fr. Coughlin – albeit interspersed with non-antisemitic reactionary rhetoric over the decades. Anyone who isn’t a regular listener to conservative talk radio probably wouldn’t perceive much of a difference between the bigoted talkers and the non-bigoted hosts. That’s because they all seem to spew varying degrees of hate. It’s only the targets and the delivery style that are different.