 | |
| Formation | 2009; 16 years ago (2009) |
|---|---|
| Founders | |
| Type | 501(c)(3)nonprofit organization |
| 27-1763901 | |
Area served | United States, United Kingdom |
CEO | Marissa Streit |
| Revenue | US$56 million (2021) |
| Expenses | US$32.9 million (2021) |
| Staff | 97 (2021) |
| Website | www |
ThePrager University Foundation, known asPragerU, is an American501(c)(3)nonprofitadvocacy group andmedia organization that creates content promotingconservative andcapitalist viewpoints on various political, economic, and sociological topics. It was co-founded in 2009 by screenwriterAllen Estrin and talk show hostDennis Prager. Despite the name including the word "university", it is not an academic institution and does not confer degrees.
PragerU's videos have contained misleading or factually incorrect information onslavery[1] andracism in the United States,immigration, and the history offascism. PragerU has been further accused of promotingracism,sexism andanti-LGBT politics.[2][3]
PragerU is used as supplemental education material in public schools in eight states.[4]
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PragerU was founded in 2009 by conservative radio talk show hostDennis Prager and radio producer/screenwriterAllen Estrin,[5][6] in order to advocate for conservative views and to offset what Prager regards as the undermining of college education by the left.[7][8]Marissa Streit, a former Israeli army intelligence member and headmistress of a Los Angeles county school, joined in 2009, and was made thechief executive officer in 2011.[9][10] They originally considered making it a brick-and-mortar university, but the idea was revised into a digital product to save money.[9]
PragerU is based in theSan Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, California,[5] and it had around 50 employees as of January 2020[update].[9] PragerU encourages students to join "PragerFORCE", an international student organization to promote PragerU's videos and ideology; about 6,500 college and high school students promoted its videos as of 2020.[9] Despite the name, PragerU is not anacademic institution and does not hold classes, does not grant certifications or diplomas, and is notaccredited by any recognized body.[10][9][11]
PragerU reached a billion views in 2018.[5]
In July 2019, PragerU representative Allen Estrin attended then-United States PresidentDonald Trump's Social Media Summit, along with other conservative organizations and people such asCharlie Kirk andJames O'Keefe.[12][13]
In October 2016, PragerU claimed thatYouTube had put 21 of PragerU's videos in the "restricted mode" setting, which ensures content is age appropriate.[7][14] YouTube responded, saying: "We aim to apply the same standards to everyone and we don't censor anyone. Often it's not the right approach to say that videos with the same topic should get the same rating. We'll need to take into consideration what the intent of the video is, what the focus of the video is, what the surrounding metadata of the video explains."[7]
In October 2017, PragerU filed a federal lawsuit against YouTube's parent company,Google, claiming that 37 of its videos were unfairly demonetized or flagged so that they could only be viewed with "restricted mode filtering," which limits views based on viewer characteristics such as age.[14] PragerU claimed that Google's demonetization and flagging violated theFirst Amendment by arguing that YouTube was apublic forum. In March 2018,U.S. District JudgeLucy Koh dismissed the case, ruling that because Google was a private company, PragerU had failed to show that Google had infringed its free speech rights.[15][16][17] In February 2020, theU.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld this ruling.[18][19]
In 2018, as part of its efforts to counter misinformation, YouTube addedfact-checking tags to PragerU's videos about climate change.[20][3] In August 2018,Facebook removed two PragerU videos from its platform. It later restored the videos, saying that they "were mistakenly removed."[21][22] According to Francesca Tripodi, professor of sociology atUNC-Chapel Hill, there are plausible non-ideological explanations for Facebook's removal of several of the videos.[23] PragerU contended that Facebook had engaged in deliberate censorship.[21][22]
In 2020, YouTube took down two trans-critical videos featuringCandace Owens for violating their policy onhate speech, whereingender dysphoria was likened toschizophrenia and disease.[24][25]
The organization depends on donations to produce its content.[26] Much of PragerU's early funding came fromfracking billionairesDan and Farris Wilks.[10][5][9] Two members of the Wilks family sit on PragerU's board.[5] The next-largest donor is theLynde and Harry Bradley Foundation.[6][27] Other donors include the Morgan Family Foundation,Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund,Donors Trust, the late Republican megadonorSheldon Adelson,[28]Lee Roy Mitchell,[28] and the Minnesota-based Sid and Carol Verdoorn Foundation, led by formerC.H. Robinson CEO Sid Verdoorn.[27] Major support is also provided by theNational Christian Foundation and theDick and Betsy DeVos Family Foundation.[29]
As of 2018, the organization reportedly had a $10 million annual budget, of which it spent more than 40% on marketing.[5] In 2019, 40% of its budget came from almost 130,000 online donors; theLos Angeles Times noted that PragerU attracted more donors than some Democratic presidential primary contenders had at the time.[10] In 2021, PragerU reported to have received about $57 million in revenue, most of it from donations, and reported approximately $33 million in expenses.[30] PragerU consistently spends more on Facebook advertising than major political campaigns and national advocacy groups.[10] In 2019, it ranked among the 10 biggest political spenders on the platform.[10]
In 2020, PragerU received $704,057 inCOVID-19 relief loans from thePaycheck Protection Program; this debt was laterforgiven in full.[31]
PragerU releases videos on various topics from a conservative viewpoint that according to its site "advancesJudeo-Christian values." As of February 2023[update], its YouTube channel included 2,200 videos.[32] Each video costs between $25,000 and $30,000 to create.[5] Dennis Prager "personally approves every item" and "edits every script" before publication, according toMother Jones.[6] PragerU guests cover a range from the secular right, the far-right, and the theocratic right.[33] Some prominent video presenters have includedBen Shapiro,Candace Owens,Tucker Carlson,Nigel Farage,Charles Krauthammer,Michelle Malkin,Bret Stephens andGeorge Will.[9][34]
Much of PragerU's popularity comes from its "5-Minute Videos", which summarize economic, political, and cultural topics, with many discussing controversial topics.[35]
Among topics covered, PragerU videos have argued against a $15minimum wage, against increasedgun control and in support ofcapitalism.[5] Although topical, PragerU videos largely avoided mentioningDonald Trump during his first presidency.[9][26][36] PragerU is pro-Israel, and Dennis Prager has said that "Nothing better identifies incipient evil thanantisemitism."[37] PragerU videos also promote theElectoral College, arguing that it thwartsvoter fraud and that "pure democracies do not work".[6]
Dave Rubin stated in a video that "racism, bigotry,xenophobia,homophobia, andIslamophobia" are "meaninglessbuzzwords". In a video about thealt-right,Michael Knowles argued that it has nothing in common with conservatism and instead is close to leftism, except the left is much larger.[5][33]
Historians and political scientists have criticized PragerU's videos for containing misleading claims about topics such as slavery[38][6] and racism in the United States,[39] immigration,[40] and the history of fascism.[41] According toGLAAD, anLGBTmedia monitoring organization, PragerU also promotesanti-LGBT politics.[2]
PragerU promotesfossil fuels while criticizing the use ofrenewable energy and disputing thescientific consensus on climate change.[3] According to the non-profit think tank InfluenceMap, targeted ads posted on Facebook included misleading material that cast doubt on science, framed climatic concerns as ideological and hysteria, and promoted aconspiracy theory that "big government control" is the real motivation behind energy policies to reduce gas emissions.[42]
PragerU has made claims that renewable energy is harmful to the environment.[43] It has promoted "new climate denial", which involves casting doubt on the negative effects of climate change and anti-climate change policies.[44]Climate Feedback,Reuters and theWeather Channel have found that their videos promote inaccurate and misleading claims about climate change.[3][45][46]
In November 2023, PragerU releasedDetrans: The Dangers of Gender-Affirming Care, a 21-minute film that follows two people who begangender-affirming care in their late teens and then laterdetransitioned. The short film was launched with a $1 million marketing campaign that included a "timeline takeover" onTwitter.Detrans was condemned by the president of theHuman Rights Campaign, an American LGBTQ advocacy group, who called it "hate-filled propaganda".[47][48]
By 2015, PragerU developed two partnership programs to promote its views, including religious material, inpublic andprivate schools. PragerU's Educator Program, with 3,000 sign-ups reported as of 2015, supplies teachers with lesson plans and study guides that accompany videos.Secondary school teachers and college professors can register their classes through PragerU's Academic Partnership program, which lets students sign up and allows teachers to monitor their students' progress.[49]
In 2023, Florida became the first state to accept PragerU as an official education vendor. They were approved by theFlorida Department of Education, who said that PragerU "aligned with the state's revised civics and government standards."[50] The decision allows public school teachers in Florida to incorporate PragerU videos into their classroom materials. Critics warned that the official recognition of PragerU will expose students to the program'sextreme material and expressed concerns about allowing an organization with a track record ofdisinformation into the curriculum.[35][51] Florida's move was followed by New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Montana, and Arizona, with Louisiana becoming in May 2024 the sixth state to give PragerU materials state sanction.[52]
In July 2025, Oklahoma announced that it had partnered with PragerU to develop an ideology test to screen and withholdteaching certificates from teachers from "woke" states.[53][54]
On June 25, 2025, PragerU launched a "Founders Museum" exhibit at theWhite House for the 250th anniversary of theDeclaration of Independence in partnership with theDepartment of Education.[55][56][57] The exhibit featuredAI-generated videos of people from Revolutionary War.[55]
According to a 2019 report in theLos Angeles Times, PragerU videos have been watched more than 2 billion times.[10] In its 2022 annual report, PragerU stated that its videos have received over 7 billion lifetime views.[58] PragerU has ranked highly in influence compared to other free-market advocacy organizations, such asReason andNational Review.[59]Vanity Fair said PragerU "packages right-wing social concepts into slick videos" and that PragerU was "one of the most effective conversion tools for young conservatives."[60]
Sociologist Francesca Tripodi has studied PragerU's marketing and messaging for the nonprofit Data & Society.[61] She found that PragerU relies onsearch engine optimization and "suggested content" to market its videos.[39][61] She noted that PragerU was popular among the respondents in her study and that they all either liked or shared PragerU videos on Facebook. Tripodi argued that PragerU allows viewers to dabble in content that "makes connections to" the alt-right's talking points.[5] In this way, viewers identifying as mainline conservatives gain "easy access towhite supremacist logic."[39] She also demonstrated an algorithmic connection on YouTube between PragerU,Fox News, andalt-right personalities.[61][39]
ABuzzFeed News article published in 2018 attributed PragerU's success to the quality of its production values compared to similar outlets and to its use of popular presenters with established audiences. The article also noted that it had received comparatively little attention from news and media analysts due to PragerU's lack of coverage of topical issues, such as Donald Trump.[5]
An August 2019 article by Drew Anderson inGLAAD, noted PragerU's "interviews with many controversial public figures who are often hailed by the white supremacist movement" and accused it of a "horrificanti-LGBTQ record."[2]Reason criticized PragerU's claims of being censored bybig tech companies as being false, given that content had not been removed from any social media platforms and that they indicate a misunderstanding of theFirst Amendment as protecting a party from any type of censorship, when that law merely protects content from censorship by the government.[62]
PragerU's coverage of COVID-19 has been proven to have spreadfalse and misleading information about the nature of the pandemic and potentially life saving remedies.[63][64][65][66]
In 2019 to counteract PragerU, the formerUnited States Senator forAlaskaMike Gravel launchedThe Gravel Institute, aprogressivethink tank.[67][68][69]
Mother Jones said PragerU videos assert that there is nogender pay gap,[6] and that there is not discrimination inpolicing of African-Americans.[6] On the subject of race, Pam Nilan says in her 2021 bookYoung People and the Far Right that PragerU "pretends to sidestep" white supremacy, but that "the message is always that white culture is better than other cultures."[70]
A case study of PragerU by McCarthy & Brewer said that "PragerU has fundamental overlapping ideologies to theextreme right" and detailed the methods of persuasion PragerU uses which "combine in a way that reflectsinformation laundering and persuasion techniques used on online platforms by white supremacists who similarly hide racist propaganda behind more politically correct wording and professional-looking websites."[71]
According to Joseph McCarthy of theWeather Channel, in the 2016 video "Fossil Fuels: The Greenest Energy", fossil fuel proponentAlex Epstein promotes misinformation about climate change, including false and misleading claims.[3] Thepaleoconservative scholarPaul Gottfried, who has written onfascism, criticized a PragerU video hosted byDinesh D'Souza which stated that fascism was a left-wing ideology. D'Souza maintained that Italian philosopherGiovanni Gentile, who influencedItalian fascism, was a left-winger, to which Gottfried noted that this contradicted the research by almost all scholars of Gentile's work who view him as an intellectual of therevolutionary right.[41]
According to Francesca Tripodi, PragerU's videos advance the conspiracy theory, popular among thealt-right, that whiteness and conservatism are under attack and many videos on PragerU focus on delegitimizing the mainstream media, accusing it of being based on emotion or opinion rather than fact.[33]
Alex Nowrasteh of theCato Institute criticized a 2018 PragerU video byMichelle Malkin that argued for stricter restrictions on immigration. Nowrasteh wrote that the video was full of errors and half-truths and omitted relevant information.[40][independent source needed]
In 2018, in the PragerU video "The Suicide of Europe",Douglas Murray argued that Europe is "committing suicide" by allowing mass immigration, condemned "The mass movement of peoples into Europe…from the Middle East, North Africa and East Asia" and criticizedEuropean multiculturalism.[27] TheSouthern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) described the video as a "dog whistle to the extreme right."Mark Pitcavage of theAnti-Defamation League described it as "filled with anti-immigration and anti-Muslim rhetoric".[27][39] "Why Did the Democratic South Become Republican?" is another video that the SPLC says contains such dog whistles. In this video,Vanderbilt University professorCarol M. Swain argues that theRepublicans'Southern strategy is a "myth" and is not what caused the South to become Republican. History professorKevin M. Kruse said that the video presented a "distortion" of history, "cherry-picked" its evidence, and was an "exercise in attacking astraw man".[39] In June 2020,Snopes andLogically criticized the video "How to End White Privilege" byBrandon Tatum. Tatum argued thatwhite privilege is a myth by claiming his race did not provide a barrier to his personal success, contrary to statistical data on the subject.[72][73]
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