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General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Israel Chai on August 20, 2017, 07:29:00 AM
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The collapse of The Rebel Media is a cautionary tale for conservatives
Aug182017
Blog Post
By Jonathon Van Maren
Most watchers of the Canadian media scene would probably agree: The ongoing meltdown of Ezra Levant’s online commentary outfit, The Rebel, is an implosion nearly unmatched in severity and swiftness. It started with roving journalist Faith Goldy’s coverage of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, which appeared overly sympathetic to the white supremacist marchers—right before she caught the deadly vehicle attack that left a woman dead on camera. Her follow-up interview with Stefan Molyneux, in which she referred to neo-Nazi Richard Spencer’s anti-Semitic platform as “well-thought out,” prompted Rebel Commander Ezra Levant to finally release a long-overdue condemnation of the alt-right.
Levant’s denunciation didn’t come in time. Rebel co-founder Brian Lilley left first, citing the Charlottesville coverage, the “increasingly harsh tone,” and a “lack of editorial and behavioral judgment.” John Robson, the Rebel’s “resident historian,” followed suit and noted that he now finds “the tone too unconstructive” and that “The Rebel has drifted too far from its mission of covering the news from a refreshing perspective.” And then contributor Barbara Kay cut ties, stating on Twitter that Ezra “has brought on contributors whose message and tactics have tarnished the Rebel brand. Most of the journalists who contribute to the Rebel are reasonable and humane people. Many, in fact, are my friends. But it only takes one or two bad apples to spoil the bunch. And regrettably, that has happened with the Rebel.”
One of the bad apples Kay is referring to, presumably, is Gavin McInnes, who recently announced that he is taking his toxic self elsewhere and also leaving The Rebel. In March of this year, I wrote a column on Gavin McInnes’s relationship with the alt-right and his poisonous brand of commentary. It was McInnes who recorded a drunken rant initially titled “Ten Reasons I Hate the Jews” for The Rebel, it was McInnes who invited Richard Spencer onto his Rebel platform for a pleasant chat where Spencer noted that McInnes was moving viewers “in our direction” in spite of his Jewish boss, and it was McInnes who landed The Rebel in hot water with his ugly commentary on Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust museum. McInnes has also hosted Spencer on his other online gigs, along with white nationalist Jared Taylor and other alt-right figures. It bears mentioning that McInnes’s claims about women enjoying sexual violence are vile and ugly, and should have disqualified him in the eyes of conservatives long before his alt-right sympathies became apparent.
McInnes’s departure—perhaps Canadians will be fortunate enough not to run across him again—was not the end of bad news for Levant. Former Rebel contributor Caolan Robertson released a video containing recordings of Levant paying him “hush money” and claimed that Levant was bilking his viewers, which Levant responded to by claiming that he was being blackmailed by Robertson and his boyfriend. Levant’s miserable week culminated with the news on Thursday that he’d fired Faith Goldy after it turned out she’d appeared on the Daily Stormer podcast after Charlottesville with a cast of neo-Nazis and white supremacists. Levant appeared on a video to announce Goldy’s departure looking exhausted and close to tears, signing off by saying, “Tough week—but we’re going to get back to work now.”
It’s hard to see where Levant can take The Rebel from here. Conservative leader Andrew Scheer has already announced that he won’t be appearing on The Rebel. Jason Kenney and the other United Conservative Party leadership candidates have distanced themselves from the now-toxic brand. There’s not a chance that any Conservative Member of Parliament will agree to an interview with Levant’s outfit again—ever. Truth be told, The Rebel’s meltdown was probably convenient timing for the Conservative Party—as long as Levant claimed to speak for Canadian right-wingers, the Conservatives were wary of snubbing his purportedly large audience, even as discomfort with The Rebel’s affiliations and harsh tone grew. But now, Levant’s influence in both the political sphere and among Canadian conservatives in general has been demolished overnight. There’s no longer a cost to ignoring The Rebel—only a cost to associating with them. The Rebel will most likely continue to flourish outside of Canada, but probably cannot recover here.
I’ve been writing about the alt-right for over a year now, saying again and again that any anti-Semitism at all is profoundly poisonous, and any group that embraces or even flirts with such sentiments should be rejected outright. When I critiqued The Rebel on several occasions for playing with alt-right fire, I was told by some that I shouldn’t be attacking “my own side”—when my precise point is that the alt-right isn’t on our side. Too many on the Right have decided that the Left is the enemy, and that all those who agree with that should be banding together. That’s why the racists that gathered in Charlottesville called their rally “Unite the Right.” And that is precisely the mistake that The Rebel made—some of them figured that since alt-right hates the Left, they must be an ally of sorts. But Levant has learned the hard way that if you’re going to dance with the demons, they might want to take you home later.
The implosion of The Rebel—nearly their entire cast of hosts has vanished in less than a week—is a cautionary tale for conservatives. With the emergence of the alt-right during the 2016 American election, many right-wing outfits—especially those who depend on Internet subscribers—decided to either overtly court the alt-right (Breitbart) or make increasingly loud overtures to them (The Rebel). Over the past year and a half, Canadian conservatives—especially social conservatives—grew increasingly uncomfortable with The Rebel’s direction, and many drifted away while alt-right types, encouraged by the fact that their language (“white genocide”) was being spoken and leaders like Richard Spencer were being granted friendly interviews, migrated over.
But the inevitable violence finally occurred and Levant has finally been forced to disavow the alt-right, and now he finds himself with a depleted audience—those who came for the fresh conservative take are generally repulsed by the alt-right, and the alt-right is already furiously labeling him a “cuck” and worse for firing Goldy. So where does The Rebel go now, without embracing the fringe element that so thoroughly poisoned the brand? No reputable journalist or commentator will countenance a job offer from Levant. No politician will agree to an interview. Scandals can be weathered, but the taint of even vague connections to white supremacists will probably be permanent. The Internet is forever.
It’s genuinely sad to see this unfold. When I was a conservative activist back in university, Ezra Levant was the free speech hero. We all watched the videos of his faceoff with the Human Rights Commission dozens of times, I attended the launch of his book Shakedown at the Fraser Institute, and I even interviewed him for the campus newspaper I wrote for. I remember being one of a handful of conservatives at a debate in Vancouver on ethical oil that devolved into chaos so quickly that Levant had to be smuggled out the back door rather than signing books. His books were mainstream back then—Ethical Oil was even profiled by the left-wing CBC.
Levant’s mistake was allowing his new venture to be co-opted by the alt-right. He, like many others, appears to have thought that they were simply Internet iconoclasts and merry trolls, rather than the vicious anti-Semites and racists that they are. As I’ve been saying for some time, we should be taking these people at their word. Levant didn’t, and that has hurt his career, and hurt it very badly. Before I published my column expressing concern over McInnes’s courting of the alt-right, I called someone at The Rebel and was informed that Levant allowed his people “100% freedom of speech,” and that McInnes could say whatever he wanted. It was this lack of editorial direction—cited specifically by so many of those departing The Rebel—that allowed the alt-right poison to spread in the first place.
Everyone should learn something from this: Consorting, even casually, with anti-Semites and racists for the purported purpose of opposing a common enemy is completely unacceptable and absolutely should be. Alliances should be formed around principles rather than perceived pragmatism, because when we ignore our principles, we become infected by the poison that we play with. It doesn’t matter whether conservatives actually agree with the alt-right. If you go to their parties to hang out, don’t be surprised if you get busted along with them when the cops show up. If you defend the alt-right, don’t be surprised if you get lumped in with them. And if you allow neo-Nazis on to your platform to chat casually about their views, the Left’s accusations of racism are going to start to look accurate. And when that happens, you have successfully hurt conservatism far more than the Left ever could.
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For anyone interested, my book on The Culture War, which analyzes the journey our culture has taken from the way it was to the way it is and examines the Sexual Revolution, hook-up culture, the rise of the porn plague, abortion, commodity culture, euthanasia, and the gay rights movement, is available for sale here.
https://thebridgehead.ca/2017/08/18/the-collapse-of-the-rebel-media-is-a-cautionary-tale-for-conservatives/
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This is how it is.
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Very wise article.
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What a self-hating Jew.
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What would you all have to say about those on the right we hope say that Nazis are such a shall group and that Antifa is worse since they have mainstream support. Like I wrote earlier I hate Nazis more. Am I wrong? What do you all think?
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What would you all have to say about those on the right we hope say that Nazis are such a shall group and that Antifa is worse since they have mainstream support. Like I wrote earlier I hate Nazis more. Am I wrong? What do you all think?
I don't really care either way. I hate them both. And they both hate Jews and Israel.
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What would you all have to say about those on the right we hope say that Nazis are such a shall group and that Antifa is worse since they have mainstream support. Like I wrote earlier I hate Nazis more. Am I wrong? What do you all think?
No question there. But the Nazis would be worse if there was more.
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I agree that both sides are bad. But what do you think of conservatives who agree with Orangina's statements and how he handled this whole thing?
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There are many moving parts to the story, beyond what was written in the article.
One major issue the Conservative Party of Canada ( CPC ) needs to deal with is they are out of touch with many CPC that are concerned about Islam's growth in Canada. This includes Refugees coming in legally and the illegal border crossers that are coming in to Canada in very large numbers.
The new CPC leader, Andrew Scheer, is reminding me of Mitt Romney, in the way he's addressing these type of issues. I'm very disappointed in the way Scheer is approaching his leadership position. The only CPC MP that's consistently displaying leadership on the illegals coming in is Michelle Rempel ( Calgary ). Many CPC Canadians I know want Rempel to somehow take over as the party leader. That would be my personal preference as well, from the distance.
Though Rebel Media used very bad judgment at times, many that are criticizing Rebel Media are RINO types that will enable Unjustin Trudeau and his allies to carry out their hideous agenda.
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I agree that both sides are bad. But what do you think of conservatives who agree with Orangina's statements and how he handled this whole thing?
Now we're getting nitpicky. If by conservative you mean not a Trump supporter, but they agreed here, I think they're wrong, not enough info to judge on righteousness there. If you mean Trump cultists, agreeing with him is their function.
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I think it is fair to bring here the statement of Ezra Levant about the circumstances that got Goldy fired. I happen to agree participating in a daily stormer podcast (and not for the purpose of debating and refuting them) is one step too far.
http://youtu.be/zz027kdYCls
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz027kdYCls
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Nazi and Left both are bad and whosoever among them in the power is the worst.
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Nazi is left.
Nazi and Left both are bad and whosoever among them in the power is the worst.
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I agree that both sides are bad. But what do you think of conservatives who agree with Orangina's statements and how he handled this whole thing?
I don't mind his statements.
The man babbles.
The media always plays the Do You Disavow game with republicans. It is tedious. The purpose is multifaceted. One, it associates their republican target to the bad behavior and beliefs implying that they have to disassociate themselves from some unrelated group, implying a connection and a similarity. 2 it is a media power play forcing the target to virtue signal at their command essentially making target dance like a monkey for them. (All of this erodes their status in the eyes of the voting public) And 3. It is designed to draw a distinction with political violence coming from the left and provide cover for it.
If they can get trump to disavow one side of a rally where there was violence from both sides, it provides further free reign for the other side to recruit and grow and be even more violent with no fear of consequences.
Was Obama or eric holder ever asked to disavow BLM antisemitism or cop killings? No.
Trump had never agreed to alt-right ideology and never supported them. Has condemned duke and kkk over and over again.
He should be condemning ALL forms of political violence, that is what a responsible president does, what Obama did not do.
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And lastly, the reality is that altright only tolerates trump for his immigration stance. They don't really support him and they view him as a Jewlover.
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What would you all have to say about those on the right we hope say that Nazis are such a shall group and that Antifa is worse since they have mainstream support. Like I wrote earlier I hate Nazis more. Am I wrong? What do you all think?
They're much one and the same but the neo-Nazis are in Trump's bailiwick, not Antifa.
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Trumps balliwick. :::D
Suddenly groups like Antifa and BLM are less evil ....because they oppose Trump.
How hypocritical. Both groups are pure evil. Both groups have no use for Jewish people and lot's of other people too. Trump hate makes people crazy. Boy, we have gotten far off the reservation.
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Who funds Antifa? George Soros?
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Who funds the UC Berkeley?
Who funds Antifa? George Soros?
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Trumps balliwick. :::D
Suddenly groups like Antifa and BLM are less evil ....because they oppose Trump.
How hypocritical. Both groups are pure evil. Both groups have no use for Jewish people and lot's of other people too. Trump hate makes people crazy. Boy, we have gotten far off the reservation.
Have you listened to a damn thing Chaim has said? We are focusing on Trump, because he's the one in office.
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What does bailiwicks mean?
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Who funds the UC Berkeley?
California taxpayers.
And yes Soros behind protests at Berkley among other places.
That isn't a Nazi?
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Have you listened to a damn thing Chaim has said? We are focusing on Trump, because he's the one in office.
To the exclusion of the truth? I can't go along with that.
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What does bailiwicks mean?
Wheel house, camp, territory, etc.
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Wheel house, camp, territory, etc.
So Antifa and BLM are in 'your' baliwick now?
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I was hinting for the fact that the leftist extremists have secured other sources of financing that are more stable and permanent than just big donations from Soros.
California taxpayers.
And yes Soros behind protests at Berkley among other places.
That isn't a Nazi?
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I was hinting for the fact that the leftist extremists have secured other sources of financing that are more stable and permanent than just big donations from Soros.
Such as?
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To the exclusion of the truth? I can't go along with that.
Yup same here.
We have to keep objectivity. Pure partisanship never comes off as genuine or honest.
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the tax payer.
Such as?
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The alt-right is not better because Trump, they should be condemned in the harshest terms because they go after your kids.
The BLM and ANTIFA is not better because Trump, they should be condemned in the harshest terms because they go after your kids.
All have insane beliefs, antifa does the most pronounced violence, BLM does the most, and the alt-right is too scared of the Illuminati to try, but they would be just as bad.
No, we should not lessen the truth to attack Trump, we should always speak the whole truth. We should also not lessen our attacks on Trump because there are traitors to America that attack him.
We should call everything as it is. The liberals don't disavow anyone because we don't give them any flak for being associated with them, they scream at us and we don't do the same.
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Let's not forget who this is hurting. He admitted to his errors openly and honestly, and he's good at the media. Maybe we should see bout him 'n his buds...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzVJTHIvqw8