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PragerU |
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The
Prager University Foundation, known as
PragerU, is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit
advocacy group and media organization that
creates content promoting conservative
viewpoints on various political, economic,
and sociological topics. It was co-founded
in 2009 by Allen Estrin and talk show host
Dennis Prager. Despite the name including
the word "university", it is not an academic
institution and does not confer degrees. |
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PragerU's videos contain misleading or
factually incorrect information promoting
climate change denial. Historians and
political scientists have also criticized
PragerU's videos for containing misleading
or inaccurate claims about topics such as
slavery and racism in the United States,
immigration, and the history of fascism.
PragerU has been accused of promoting
anti-LGBT politics. |
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Arizona Schools
Chief Promotes
Conservative,
'Woke'-Free
Classroom Resources |
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"Arizona’s GOP
Superintendent of
Public Instruction
Tom Horne
announced alongside
PragerU CEO
Marissa Streit that
PragerU Kids’ videos
and “educational”
content would be
available on the
Arizona Department
of Education
website. Arizona is
now the fifth state
to add PragerU Kids
materials to their
educational
curriculum following
Florida, Oklahoma,
New Hampshire, and
Montana. During the
press conference
Horne claimed, “The
problem we’ve had
is, in some
classrooms only the
extreme left side
has been presented.”
Horne followed up by
attacking critical
race theory and the
1619 Project.
Arizona’s Democratic
Gov. Katie Hobbs
criticized the
partnership, calling
PragerU’s lessons
“fake history” and
Arizona House Rep.
Raúl Grijalva
labeled it as
“unaccredited
right-wing
propaganda.”" |
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Feb. 1, 2024 |
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$1 Million PragerU
“DETRANS” Ad On X
Echoes So-Called
“Ex-Gay” Movement Of
1990s |
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"n Thursday, a
glance at Twitter
revealed the hashtag
#DETRANS dominating
the trending topics
section for the full
day. Orchestrated by
PragerU, this
$1,000,000 campaign
promoted
a short film that
brought attention to
individuals who have
detransitioned,
alleging they were
“manipulated by the
trans movement.”
Daisy Stronglin, the
main subject of the
film, transitioned
as an adult at 18
and detransitioned
back in 2020,
declaring her
decision to
detransition was
“ultimately, for
God.” As the
day went on and
millions watched the
film, Daisy made her
true position clear
in a statement
echoing back to the
ex-gay movements of
the 1990s: Nobody
should be allowed to
transition at any
age, and that
everyone should
convert to
Catholicism. The ad
buy, rejected by
Youtube, found
approval under Elon
Musk’s twitter, who
himself has been
vocally against
gender affirming
care, stating that
he would lobby to
criminalize doctors
providing gender
affirming care to
trans youth. In it,
Daisy states that
her “mental
struggles” led her
to transition and
that her
detransition was
caused by her
perception that she
“never will be” a
guy. Not mentioned
in the film,
however, is that in
her announcement
video about her
detransition, she
states that it was
done “ultimately for
God” after her
conversion to
Christianity." |
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Nov. 3, 2023 |
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Yes, Prager U Wants
To Indoctrinate Your
Kids. But That’s Not
Really The Point |
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"When New Hampshire
education officials
recently approved
the use of material
from the
conservative website
PragerU, the
decision was met
with a predictable
outcry. For
liberals, here was
proof that the same
Republican officials
who have been
railing against
propaganda and
brainwashing in the
schools are actually
just fine with
indoctrination—as
long as it comes
from the right.
PragerU’s materials
are indeed riddled
with distortions and
misrepresentations.
Yet what’s far more
alarming about such
stridently partisan
curricular options
is that they are
designed to alienate
people from the idea
of common schooling,
threatening the
foundations of our
public education
system. Founder
Dennis Prager has
long been open about
the fact that his
aim is to
indoctrinate kids
into right-wing
ideas, one
five-minute video at
a time. In reality,
however, very few
students will
encounter the
PragerU videos
denying the link
between fossil fuels
and climate change
or depicting
abolitionist
Frederick Douglass
justifying slavery." |
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Oct. 25, 2023 |
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US ‘University’
Spreads Climate Lies
And Receives
Millions From
Rightwing Donors |
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"A rightwing media
outlet promoting climate-crisis denialism
and other “anti-woke” staples to young
students and adults via social media has
become a fundraising Goliath, raking in
close to $200m from 2018 to 2022 with big
checks from top conservative donors, tax
records reveal. Founded in 2009 by the
conservative talkshow host Dennis Prager,
the eponymous Prager University Foundation
is not an accredited education organization.
But via online media its PragerU Kids
division has become a key tool in spreading
false claims to young people with short
videos aimed at undercutting widely accepted
science that climate crisis disasters are
accelerating due, largely, to fossil-fuel
usage. PragerU’s influence in pushing false
narratives about climate change and other
far-right shibboleths such as airbrushing
the brutal reality of American slavery
gained ground when the Florida board of
education in July gave the green light to
using its videos and other materials in
classrooms, a move that PragerU is trying to
capitalize on in Texas and other states. On
Tuesday, Oklahoma’s school system also
approved the use of PragerU’s materials." |
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Sep. 6, 2023 |
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PragerU: The Propaganda Machine Masquerading As
An Online Education Hub |
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"In the latest season of
The Audit, hosts comedian Dave Anthony and
screenwriter Josh Olson team up with The Lever
to take on
Prager
University (aka PragerU), a right-wing
propaganda machine masquerading as an online
education hub, that’s been slowly creeping its
way into the public education system.
Founded by conservative radio host Dennis
Prager, PragerU is a far-right media outlet
structured as a non-profit educational
institution. Primarily distributed through
YouTube and Facebook, its slickly-produced
videos are carefully crafted to push a
reactionary political agenda and promote a
regressive vision of society to young people.
Here’s a summary of the Audit’s season so far" |
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May 25, 2023 |
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Hungary Paid Dennis
Prager $30,000 For
An Hour Of
Appearances At
Far-Right
‘Education’
Conference |
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"A Hungarian education
foundation paid Dennis Prager $30,000 in
public funds for two appearances during an
August youth festival where
he
and Fox News host Tucker Carlson touted the
country’s far-right stances on the media,
immigration and LGBTQ issues, according to a
contract obtained by Hatewatch. The
Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC) invited
Prager, who hosts a popular talk radio show
and co-founded the influential right-wing
nonprofit PragerU, and Fox News host
Tucker Carlson to give speeches praising
Hungary’s far-right, Christian nationalist
model as the savior of Western culture.
PragerU is not a university. It hosts
five-minute videos where hosts provide a
right-wing explanation of controversial
topics. Most hosts are establishment
conservatives, but many videos feature
extremist far right talking points,
including anti-immigrant rants and
anti-trans rhetoric." |
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Jan. 13, 2022 |
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Prager Claims Gay
Men Were Never
Treated As Pariahs
Like The
Unvaccinated |
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"Conservative talk
show host Dennis Prager on Monday made the
wild claim that the unvaccinated today are
treated worse than gay men during the height
of the AIDS crisis. During an appearance on
Newsmax,
the
PragerU founder said people who
choose not to get vaccinated against the
coronavirus are “the pariahs of America, as
I have not seen in my lifetime... Can you
imagine if gay men and intravenous drug
users… had they been pariahs the way the
non-vaccinated are? But it would have been
inconceivable.” Prager, who would have been
in his thirties during the height of the
AIDS crisis, apparently went the length of
the decade without witnessing the endemic
fear, ostracizing, and mistreatment of AIDS
sufferers by wider society. During
his Monday appearance, the conservative also
shot his mouth off on the topic of climate
change, saying that those concerned about it
had an “idiotic, irrational, sick fear of
extinction of the biosphere.”" |
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Nov. 8, 2021 |
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Another Court Throws Out PragerU’s
Preposterous YouTube Lawsuit |
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"Dennis Prager,
founder of the
right-wing
propaganda outlet
Prager University,
has a First
Amendment right to
lie about climate
change, deny that
straight people get
HIV, viciously
vilify Muslims, and
declare that “men
get turned on by any
sight of female
flesh.” He does not,
however, have a
right to upload
these claims to
YouTube and make
money off them, the
9th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals
ruled on Wednesday.
PragerU may not be a
household name, but
it has a
surprisingly broad
reach: Its
five-minute videos
have racked up well
over 2 billion views
across platforms.
Although these
videos are presented
as unbiased
educational lessons,
they promote
exclusively
conservative, often
fringe views.
Prager and his
friends regularly
condemn Muslims,
LGBTQ equality,
abortion, feminism,
gun control, and
campaign finance
reform, and deny
climate change. (The
company is partly
funded by fracking
billionaires.)
The outlet has
mastered the art of
grabbing viewers’
attention with a
provocative video,
presented as fact,
then pulling them
deeper down the
rabbit hole into
Prager’s bizarre
world of toxic
propaganda." |
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Feb. 26, 2020 |
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Judge Dismisses
Lawsuit Alleging
Google Censorship Of
Conservative YouTube
Videos
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"A federal judge has
dismissed a lawsuit
against Google filed
by the conservative
educational site
PragerU that alleged
the internet giant
was censoring its
YouTube videos." [ .
. . ] "PragerU
filed its lawsuit in
October, alleging
that Google’s
decision to remove
some of its videos
from YouTube’s
restricted mode,
which filters out
certain videos for
younger audiences,
was motivated by a
prejudice against
conservatives." |
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Mar. 27, 2018 |
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