

While their videos are framed as works of rational, academic thought - they even provide study guides and other resources for educators and parents who want to use them for "educational" purposes - they are anything but. Those charts capture the true ethos of PragerU.
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Thanks to tens of millions of dollars in backing from the likes of fracking billionaires Dan and Farris Wilks - much of which goes to promoting their content on Facebook - PragerU is able to produce slick videos full of animated sequences and official-looking graphs that tend to lack labels, data, and meaning. Twelve years, hundreds of videos, 2.9 million subscribers, and more than 5 billion views later, PragerU has become a force to be reckoned with in the sphere of political YouTube. And while the extent to which they've reached their target demographic of college-aged kids is questionable, they have certainly found an audience. With the eye-rolling tagline "give us five minutes, and we'll give you a semester," Prager and Estrin set out to make pithy, digestible, hyper-simplified videos to counter the left-leaning politics they saw as dominating college campuses. Another year would pass, along with the inauguration of President Barack Obama - before Prager got together with his producer Allen Estrin and decided to test the waters of YouTube themselves, launching their YouTube channel PragerU - short for Prager University - in 2009.

Mike Gravel - Rock - Meanwhile, Dennis Prager was hosting his talk radio show and endorsing John McCain for president. But his bizarre claim to Internet celebrity, combined with his confrontational debate performances, planted a seed that would sprout into something even stranger more than a decade after the fact. Gravel managed to earn just 404 votes in New Hampshire's primary. But it was weird enough to catch some viral heat in the early days of YouTube and ended up making an appearance on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Was it profound and inspirational with a cutting political message? Nope. The most iconic of the lot, "Rock," featured Gravel staring wordlessly at the camera for a full 70 seconds before picking up a large rock and throwing it into a lake in the background - followed by an additional minute and change of the former senator walking off into the distance.
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Mike Gravel - On Other Candidates and War But where Gravel 2008 really made a splash was in a series of surreal campaign ads. While Dennis Prager continues to promote supply-side, "trickle-down" economics - AKA Reaganomics - after decades of demonstrated failure and has worked to spread "skepticism" about the 2020 presidential election results, Gravel has espoused his belief that "9/11 was an inside job," and pushed to build a 4-square-mile teflon Dome to house "Denali City" during his tenure as Senator.īut what really makes these two men at once so alike and so distinct is their unlikely roles as Internet icons.ĭuring his 2008 presidential campaign, Gravel made headlines from the debate stage by calling out his Democratic colleagues for their complicity in upholding America's military empire and the military-industrial complex - accusations which Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden laughed off in exaggerated displays. We also rate them Mixed for factual reporting due to a failed fact check and one-sided reporting.Both men are known for taking shots at Democrats, and both men have endorsed some fringe ideas in their time. Overall, we rate The Gravel Institute Far-Left Biased based on editorial views aligned with the progressive left and Democratic Socialism. The Biden administration has decided to cancel $0 in student debt – False

The Institute advocates creating a more equal and just economy by democratizing ownership and redistributing wealth in America and around the world.” Failed Fact Checks They state, “We live under capitalism, an economic system which engages in the exploitation of billions of people around the world. They also publish mini-documentaries promoting views such as this COVID-19 and Capitalism (with Richard Wolff).Įditorially, they clearly state their progressive agenda on the about page, which consists of ending imperial wars, a direct democracy, redistribution of wealth, and anti-capitalism messages.
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For example, the Gravel Institute produces videos similar to PragerU, such as this How to Defeat PragerU: The Gravel Institute and How Socialists Can Win Elections. The Gravel Institute was created specifically to counter the conservative and questionable PragerU.
