In the wake of Mediaite’s reporting last week on allegations that Steven Crowder fostered a toxic workplace rife with unorthodox conduct, the Louder with Crowder host called for an emergency staff meeting on Monday at the show’s offices in Texas.
The meeting was held to address concerns around internal leaks — and to warn staffers against speaking out about what goes on inside the company.
Four ex-staffers on the popular right-wing show told Mediaite they then received text messages, which were reviewed by Mediaite, from current staffers telling them they were no longer allowed to communicate or associate with each other.
“The company is clearly in damage control mode,” one former Louder staffer said, “What’s bizarre is that Louder with Crowder employees are a bit like a family. Even after people leave, they still remain friends and hang out together. But after the [Mediaite article] was published I noticed several current employees quit returning my texts and left group chats.“
“One outright told me they could no longer associate with me or else they would be fired,” they said. “I could tell they were scared.”
The former staffer said intimidating behavior like this is nothing new under the leadership of the YouTube star, but the latest crackdown is the most dramatic manifestation of it yet.
“This kind of thing has happened in the past, just not at this level,” the former staffer said. “After an employee was fired, people on the team were told they could no longer associate with that person.”
“So when someone leaves and we’re told we can’t be around them it feels very cult-like,” they added. “Not only is the company done with them, but we’re being asked to end friendships. It always seemed over the line to dictate who people can and can’t be friends with outside of work.”
Another ex-staffer said they were on the receiving end of a current Crowder employee’s text message breaking off their friendship after the internal staff meeting: “An employee friend of mine texted me saying they can no longer associate with me but that it’s nothing personal. I asked why and they said they couldn’t tell me, but that it’s something with work and they could get in serious trouble.”
The “serious trouble,” according to a third former show employee, is termination. They said they also received a text message from a current staffer that read, “It’s nothing personal but we can’t communicate with any ex-employees right now. This is on threat of firing, and comes from the top. Hopefully it won’t always be this way.”
The third ex-staffer explained to Mediaite that Crowder operates with a bunker mentality, where all disputes between his staff and the outside world are seen as “us vs. them, liberal media vs. us or past employees vs. us.”
“He sees everything as good guy against the bad guy and he is never the bad guy,” they said. “If you’re actually the good guy and in the right, you would want more transparency not less.”
Crowder did not respond to a request for comment.
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com
