After actress Blake Lively sued director Justin Baldoni in December, saying he had retaliated against her for reporting sexual harassment on a film set, an unusual group of online talkers dove into this Hollywood dispute.
Right-wing personality Candace Owens — who split from The Daily Wire last year amid conflicts over her antisemitic rhetoric — was not previously known for covering celebrity litigation. But she has become one of Baldoni’s loudest defenders online, helping propel the feud and gaining new audiences for herself along the way.
This strategy appears to be successful in multiple ways.
In an interview, Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman recognized the role of podcasters and social media influencers like Owens: “You’ve seen social media, and these TikTokers and people on YouTube, they’re amazing,” he said. Since January, Owens has dedicated at least 19 episodes of her online show to Lively and Baldoni. Her YouTube videos and TikToks on the topic have garnered over 130 million views.
Other right-wing hosts like Brett Cooper and former Fox News and NBC personality Megyn Kelly have also tried to reel in new audiences, mentioning Lively or Baldoni at least 440 times on their online shows since the beginning of the year. After Kelly interviewed Baldoni’s lawyer (who she says is also her lawyer), Kelly told her audience: “The thing that stood out to me was, I don’t understand this, because she’s the one in the power position here. It’s Blake Lively and some guy who pretty much nobody knows.” She added: “I’m neck-deep in this weird industry that I really want nothing to do with, but it’s the case everyone’s been talking about.”
This strategy appears to be successful in multiple ways. These influencers are keeping this story in the spotlight — Owens predicts it’s “going to be bigger than” the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s legal battle — and they’re gaining engagement and new audiences as they do it. Pro-Baldoni content is spreading wildly online, with some saying that all they know about the story is from Owens, that they’re closely following and are invested in her content about the legal tussle, or that this content led them to her other content.
Owens has also tried capturing true crime fans with a series in which she “transvestigates” the first lady of France and another about Hollywood producer and convicted sex offender Harvey Weinstein that she says will include an interview with him. In just two months, she has added 1.75 million followers to her social media accounts. Kelly’s TikTok video of her interview with Baldoni’s lawyer is one of her most-viewed, with 9.1 million views.
For decades, the right has built a massive media ecosystem to prop up right-wing narratives and politicians. In recent years, they’ve successfully expanded beyond print and television media into talk radio, social media and now podcasts, streams and other online shows. Some, like Owens and Kelly, are now drawing even bigger audiences by stretching outside their comfort zones. Meanwhile, right-wing narratives have been seeping into supposedly nonpolitical shows, like those of Joe Rogan at Theo Von.
Those shifts have impacts. For instance, you may have heard about how Trump’s appearances on popular podcasts brought young men into his winning coalition. But just how bad is the disparity between audiences of these right-leaning versus left-leaning shows? A new Media Matters study assessing popular online shows found that the right’s online audiences are five times larger than those of progressives. And many of those shows don’t present themselves as political at all.
As the right seeps into these traditionally nonpolitical spaces, they’ve also been pushing mainstream media and social media to the right.
In fact, 72% of the shows we examined that describe themselves as focused on topics like sports, pop culture or comedy were actually right-leaning in terms of their content or guests. Some of the top online shows — like those of Rogan, Von, Andrew Schulz and the Nelk Boys — fall in this category. That means that their tens of millions of followers are hearing not just from celebrity guests like Timothée Chalamet but also from Trump, his allies and right-wing media personalities.
Many of these shows’ hosts are also spreading right-wing narratives themselves, such as praising and bolstering Trump’s actions and policies.
Take Joe Rogan, whose show is listed as “comedy” on both Apple Podcasts and Spotify. But during the first 30 days of Trump’s second presidency, Rogan repeatedly praised Trump and promoted his policies while chatting with comedians — claiming “the new government is emphasizing privacy and freedom of speech,” praising Trump for getting a deal done in Gaza “in a day” while “the Biden administration had two years, couldn’t get anything done,” and repeating debunked claims that Trump is rooting out widespread fraud and corruption in government agencies like USAID.
Or PBD Podcast, a self-described “business” show. Each episode in Trump’s first 30 days mentioned him dozens of times, and guests included right-wing media personality Glenn Beck and Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla. The hosts said that “we’re gonna have four years of this just kicking ass,” “the market — it’s cool to be pro-Trump,” and “Trump is always five, six, you know, 10 steps ahead of the other person that he’s negotiating with.”
As the right seeps into these traditionally nonpolitical spaces, they’ve also been pushing mainstream media and social media to the right. Just look at CNN laying off staff while reportedly giving pro-MAGA pundit Scott Jennings a hefty raise. Or Meta rolling back its content moderation policies to appease Republicans.
The right’s expansive online ecosystem plays into a fundamental aspect of the current online environment: Outrage and fearmongering garner more attention and engagement than facts. And right-wing media figures have leaned into pop culture to garner more audiences for their content, while comedians, sports commentators and entertainers are pushing right-wing content. The result is that right-wing narratives are seemingly everywhere. And this environment allows Trump and his allies to easily spread propaganda to wide swaths of Americans.
