Facts don’t care about your feelings, but to his credit, Ben Shapiro’s dad seems to care quite a bit about his son’s. This weekend, Twitter user @JMcCarthysGhost alleged that David Shapiro has been writing for his son’s website since its inception, under the psuedonym ‘Hank Berrien.’ A cursory Google search reveals that many of the articles written by Mr. Berrien follow a similar formula: “Ben Shapiro Destroys John Oliver,” “Shapiro Destroys Islamic Sarsour Defender,” and, somewhat puzzlingly, “Toon Shapiro DESTROYS Toon College Student” are just a few of the articles Berrien has written over the years.

We reached out to @JMcCarthysGhost, who says that he had taken note of the copious number of Shapiro-praising articles under Berrien’s byline. “I originally thought that ‘Hank Berrien’ was a pseudonym used by Ben Shapiro, and I had commented on this belief a number of times in the Disqus comment section of DailyWire,” he says. “After pointing this out in the comment section, another commenter, jboss11, suggested ‘Hank Berrien’ could be Ben Shapiro’s father.”

At this point, speculation that Hank Berrien might be Shapiro’s father seems like just that, idle speculation. There is some shaky evidence to suggest that an older episode of The Ben Shapiro Show may include an admission that Ben’s father writes for The Daily Wire; jboss11 claims to have heard it, but cannot pinpoint the episode. And Hank Berrien’s lack of social media presence cannot be assumed as proof; several other Daily Wire writers also have no online presence outside of the site.

But David Shapiro does have a history of writing under a pseudonym. Back when Ben was the editor-at-large at Breitbart News, David regularly contributed under the name “William Bigelow.” We know this because Breitbart published a “satirical” piece critical of Ben under the Bigelow byline immediately after the Shapiros resigned, forcing the younger Shapiro to reveal his father’s pseudonym. Shapiro’s family has been the target of numerous anti-Semitic threats since he came out as critical of Donald Trump, and his father wrote under the Bigelow pseudonym to protect his privacy.

It also seems obvious, however, that David Shapiro frequently used that privacy to write puff pieces about his son. When Ben faced off against Piers Morgan, David wrote a piece that shined a light on how incredibly his son had performed. When Ben crashed a hearing at UCLA, David wrote a stirring article in which Ben the conquering hero braved the hordes and earned a standing ovation. When Ben’s book Bullies received a negative review from The Daily Beast, David took to Breitbart and defended his son’s honor, decrying the Beast’s review as “ the most cursory, superficial, trifling, desultory, half-assed, perfunctory, shallow, cut-rate, inadequate, insubstantial, meager, rinky-dink review of a book ever written.” Presumably, David had received an advance copy.

There’s nothing wrong with being fond of your child, and there’s nothing wrong with defending them from what you consider unfair criticism. But sooner or later, children have to grow up, and defending them on the Internet under the guise of a journalist is only going to impede their social and emotional development. I’m sure Ben Shapiro, conservative intellectual gladiator and outspoken critic of easily offended snowflakes, would agree.

Ben, if The Daily Beast doesn’t like your book, it’s their right as Americans to express that distaste. That’s how the First Amendment works. Your father isn’t going to be able to change their minds. And look, this isn’t entirely about your father. Even if he isn’t currently writing for The Daily Wire as Hank Berrien, you have an army of writers in your employ, all of whom seem to have written at least one “Ben Shapiro Destroys ______” article. And that’s not even mentioning all the times you yourself have retweeted the very charming “Ben Shapiro Teens (NOT A CULT)” Twitter account. Or the times you’ve retweeted the “@BenShapQuotes” Twitter account. Or the times you’ve retweeted the “@Shapiro_2024”– You get the picture.

Let’s put it this way: Maybe if your website functioned more as a news source and less as a thinly veiled disguise for a conservative propaganda unit devoted to your self-image, you’d make fewer silly mistakes.

(Oh, and a quick note to the elder Shapiro: We don’t know for sure that you’re still doing this sort of thing. But if you are, we look forward to reading “Ben Shapiro DECIMATES NYU Local” sometime next week.)