Ben Shapiro, co-founder of The Daily Wire, explained what he sees as The New York Times‘ strategy to silence conservatives and interfere in the election by pressuring YouTube to take adverse action against conservatives who allegedly spread “election misinformation.”

New York Times reporter Nico Grant reached out to numerous conservative figures, including Shapiro, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, entrepreneur Elon Musk, and Andrew Klavan, the host of a Daily Wire show. Grant asked them to respond to criticism that they spread “election misinformation,” citing the left-wing outlet Media Matters, and asking whether YouTube had warned them about this “misinformation.”

“Their goal is to shut the spigot off so you can’t get any information on places like YouTube,” Shapiro told The Daily Signal in written comments Wednesday. He noted that many Americans hear about the new on YouTube. A Pew Research Center survey from September found that 32% of Americans regularly get news on YouTube, an increase from 23% in 2020.

“Shutting off the spigot on news information one week in advance of an election. That is The New York Times’ trick,” he added.

In a post on X, Shapiro suggested the Times’ article represented the legacy media’s “October surprise,” a last-minute effort to sway the presidential election.

2/ What, precisely, is NYT doing? It's perfectly obvious: using research from Media Matters, a radical Left-wing organization whose sole purpose is destroying conservative media (see below), in order to pressure YouTube to demonetize and penalize any and all conservatives ONE… pic.twitter.com/GzgXdVSwhF

“Even the threat of being demonetized from YouTube is threatening us directly; it’s saying, ‘Watch your step, or you may get thrown off YouTube,’ which, of course, would be difficult for us and make it hard for us to get the word out,” Klavan, host of “The Andrew Klavan Show” on The Daily Wire and author of the mystery novel “A Woman Underground,” told The Daily Signal in an interview Wednesday.

“It’s both intimidating us and trying to force YouTube’s hand, which YouTube may be in league with them, for all I know,” he added. (Alphabet, the parent company of Google and YouTube, did not........

© The Daily Signal