[Thanos]

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

When did it stand for anything other than sensationalism, and cash flow for Ezra's libel suits?

Never.

[herbie]

$1:

That's because there's no place for hate speech laws under our Constitution.

There is under ours. Boils down to the intent trying to hide behind freedom of speech. Like how you won't be protected by freedom of speech by yelling "gun" at a rock concert (nobody goes to theaters anymore...).
Like Trump, who can't grasp the simple idea of STFU with tweets, these guys can easily skirt the hate speech laws just by NOT pointing to an identifiable group every goddam time.
You're free to tout the 'superiority of the white race' but as soon as you mention or agree X group is inferior you crossed the line. When you go out of your way to condemn gays, transgenders, Muslims, blacks, natives, Catholics or Jews you've shown your intent is to promote hatred.

[Thanos]

Apparently Faith Goldy, Fiddy's dream girl, got fired because three days ago she appeared on a podcast run by some dipshit that is directly involved with the openly and proudly neo-Nazi Daily Stormer. Guess she felt the need to do that, as if making fun of the smelly hippies while lauding the clean-cut Nazis in Charlottesville, at the exact same moment one of them drives a car into a crowd on the street, wasn't enough to show where her mentality lies. Here's hoping that the upcoming CRA investigation into what Levant does with his donations is what finally takes him down for good, and leaves him feeling really sore in the wrong hole for a very long time.

[DrCaleb]

The rebel is starting to resemble "The Apprentice: Canada".

[BeaverFever]

$1:

Rebel Media meltdown: Faith Goldy fired as politicians, contributors distance themselves

Joseph Brean, Jack Hauen and Marie-Danielle Smith
August 17, 2017 10:57 PM EDT
Rebel Media, the far-right news organization that Ezra Levant built from the remnants of the Sun News Network, appeared in near total meltdown on Thursday, losing more high-profile contributors, facing accusations of financial mismanagement and being shunned by leading conservative politicians as the shock of the Charlottesville neo-Nazi protests reverberated through Canada.

Despite an effort this week by Levant to distance The Rebel from the “alt-right” white nationalist movement that violently marched on the Virginia college town on the weekend, The Rebel’s sympathetic coverage of the movement’s racist provocateurs and their conspiracy theories led many of its best-known contributors to quit this week, including co-founder Brian Lilley and National Post contributors Barbara Kay and John Robson. On Thursday, Vice Media co-founder Gavin McInnes also reportedly departed. In an email to the media news site Canadaland, Levant said The Rebel had “tried to keep (McInnes), but he was lured away by a major competitor that we just couldn’t outbid.” McInnes did not respond to the Post’s request for comment.

Also on Thursday, Levant fired Faith Goldy, the contributor who had covered the weekend’s protests in Charlottesville. Goldy did not respond to the Post’s requests for comment, but confirmed her dismissal in a tweet Thursday night.


As The Rebel grappled with the departures, Norwegian Cruise Lines bent to the pressure of U.K.-based advocacy group Hope Not Hate and cancelled The Rebel’s booking for a Caribbean voyage featuring talks by Rebel personalities, saying the views The Rebel has espoused are “inconsistent” with the cruise line’s own “core values.” Meanwhile, the anonymous online activist group Sleeping Giants reported its long-running efforts to organize an advertising boycott of The Rebel has now resulted in a total of 237 advertisers, including major automotive firms, airlines, retailers and governments, dropping The Rebel from their campaigns.


Faith Goldy reporting for Rebel Media in Charlottesville moments before a car rammed into a crowd of counter-protesters next to her. Rebel Media/YouTube
But none of these setbacks seemed as much of a threat to destabilize The Rebel as accusations made by another recently departed employee, British contributor Caolan Robertson.

In an explosive video posted to YouTube on Thursday, featuring secretly recorded audio of Levant, Robertson claimed The Rebel has dishonestly solicited donations in excess of the costs of creating its content, concealed its use of the money, and oriented its news agenda around stories that can be turned into activist campaigns, generating a vast database of email addresses of sympathetic viewers and readers who can be mobilized for fundraising.



Robertson claims Levant flew to England to offer him thousands of dollars in what Levant described in the recording as “hush money,” and threatened legal action if Robertson or his partner and producer, George Llewelyn-John, were to try to sell their story to a British tabloid. Robertson also claimed Levant spiked a story about the UK Independence Party allegedly committing electoral fraud, and that Levant was actively trying to recruit its former leader, Nigel Farage.

“Ezra didn’t seem to care about the truth,” said Robertson, who ended his video by announcing his own new media startup, for which he made a plea for donations.

Levant declined the National Post’s interview request, but in a written statement

published Thursday on The Rebel’s website he claimed Robertson was blackmailing and extorting him.

“I’ve always known the rule that if you’re ever being blackmailed, don’t pay. I mean, even if you think you can pay a blackmailer, they’ll just ask for more a second time. But you’re scared. So you pay. I thought I could make the problem go away, so I actually paid. And then I paid again. But then they threatened again. Last night actually. So I haven’t slept,” he wrote.



Then he gave his side of the story, in which Robertson and Llewelyn-John were hired first as freelancers, then as employees, and made increasingly panicked demands for emergency operating funds, eventually threatening to “publicly allege that we were stealing money from our viewers … stealing from charities.”

“It was a complete lie,” Levant said, claiming various charitable donations The Rebel has made, including paying for a lawyer and even a vacation for a British rape victim whose case was not prosecuted.

“It also went to good things, like the extremely expensive wheelchair we’ve ordered for Gareth Knox (a British army veteran with multiple sclerosis),” Levant wrote.

As a defence of The Rebel in its time of crisis, Levant’s statement did not appear to have calmed the situation.



Andrew Scheer, the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, who has appeared on The Rebel several times,

released a statement Thursday saying he is boycotting the outlet because of its “editorial directions,” and because it gives a platform to “hate groups.” Scheer had previously scheduled an interview with the Post for Thursday, to discuss The Rebel and the question of free speech on university campuses — which he had made a key part of his leadership platform — but the interview was abruptly postponed.

“I am disgusted by the vile comments made by hate groups this past weekend,” read the statement Scheer offered instead. “I believe there is a fine line between reporting the facts and giving those groups a platform. I have a positive vision for Canada and I want to share that vision with Canadians and talk about issues that unite us all. Until the editorial directions of the Rebel Media changes, I will not grant interviews to the outlet.”

Scheer’s leadership campaign manager, Hamish Marshall, was until recently on The Rebel’s board of directors, but told Maclean’s he is “in the process” of cutting ties with the company, a decision he said he made months ago, unrelated to the Charlottesville protests.

I believe there is a fine line between reporting the facts and giving those groups a platform

Marshall now works as campaign manager for Brian Jean in his bid to lead Alberta’s United Conservative Party. Jean also announced Thursday he would not appear on The Rebel again “unless their direction changes in a significant way.” Jean’s chief rival for the UCP leadership, Jason Kenney, on Thursday also condemned the outlet’s “alt-right editorial direction of recent months.”

The discord reflects the unease that has grown between The Rebel, some of whose contributors have enthusiastically adopted the language and ideas of the far right’s anti-immigrant, Islamophobic, nationalist fringe, and more centrist Canadian conservative politicians, who are struggling to mount an effective and popular opposition to the governing Liberal Party.

It is hard to resolve, for example, Levant’s rejection of racism with Goldy’s appearance on the Krypto Report, a podcast produced by the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi outlet that advocates genocide.

In it, she said she “salutes” the white supremacists for showing up to Charlottesville “in hordes,” then she clarified with a laugh: “Not a Roman salute, guys,” a reference to the stiff armed Nazi salute.

The podcast’s live audience erupted in cheers and applause when Goldy predicted that within five years an alt-right politician would run for office.

“Love you or hate you, people would be fools to ignore you,” she said.

In a video posted to the Rebel’s site Thursday night, Levant said the podcast appearance had been the reason for her dismissal.

http://nationalpost.com/news/canada/pol ... 9bd870f1f1


Another failed business venture for Ezra and his shop of lies and hatemongering.

[JaredMilne]

I have to admit that I always thought Ezra Levant was an arrogant douche. Even if I agreed with him on some things (the benefits of Canadian over foreign oil, the overreach of the human rights commissions), I always thought he would hate you for the rest of his life if you so much as dared to question him.

Many other people, including CPC supporters on this forum, couldn't stand him either for similar reasons, as we can probably recall when news broke about Sun News going under.

But what I found surprising here was the shockingly bad judgement shown by the likes of Faith Goldy and Levant himself. Goldy's antics made it all too easy to associate all of Rebel Media with the KKK-types out there, building on the case that could start with Gavin McInnes's "Ten Things I Hate About Jews" article. Even after they changed it to "Ten Things I hate About Israel", I can't quite see how insulting Israel that way would go over well with conservative Israel supporters without also leaving them vulnerable to accusations of anti-Semitism, even if Levant himself is Jewish.

And then there's the blackmailing incident-Levant hired these guys without a background check, and continually gave them large sums of money even after they were shown to be continually wasting it? I'd have credited Levant with being a lot smarter than that.

Now, if Rebel Media implodes, that'll be the third media outlet that Levant has had shot out from under him, after the Western Standard and Sun News.

[BeaverFever]

I don't know which failing dumpster fire is more fun to watch implode - Trump or The Rebel - but it's interesting to see how just one week of pandering to neo-nazis contributed to both entering their current crisis state.

Levant and several (now former) Rebel contributors are current or former National Post contributors so it was interesting to read NP's lengthy feature on him. I didn't know he had been such a connected Conservative party insider or that Stephen Harper was one of the many many associates he feuded with (Levant wanted to run for MP in Calgary but Harper needed a seat for himself so forced him to hand it over).

No surprise that Levant's toxic and alienating personality has plagued him since childhood and his inability to get along with anyone leads him to one failure after another.

Article here:

http://nationalpost.com/features/inside ... ebel-media

[Thanos]

Michael Coren's one of the better and more respected people out there on the conservative side. He's tough but fair and doesn't go after opponents personally. If Coren says something like Levant's near absence of empathy for his "enemies" is his worst flaw then he should be listened to. No wonder Levant is now in this alt-right/pro-Trump gutter because if there's anything these creeps all have in common it's a lack of empathy where they genuinely just don't care at all about the lynch-mob kind of hurt they cause.

[Sunnyways]

BeaverFever BeaverFever:

I don't know which failing dumpster fire is more fun to watch implode - Trump or The Rebel - but it's interesting to see how just one week of pandering to neo-nazis contributed to both entering their current crisis state.

No surprise that Levant's toxic and alienating personality has plagued him since childhood and his inability to get along with anyone leads him to one failure after another.

Article here:

http://nationalpost.com/features/inside ... ebel-media

That's a substantial piece. Levant simply can't help himself. I wonder if he spent any of his dad's money in these ventures? Given his love of libel law, he should move to Britain where he'd have a better chance of winning more often in such cases. Of course, he'd have to keep his own mouth shut...

[BRAH]

___________________



____________________

WTF was Ezra thinking of bringing Laura Loomer on board?

[JaredMilne]

Thanos Thanos:

Michael Coren's one of the better and more respected people out there on the conservative side. He's tough but fair and doesn't go after opponents personally. If Coren says something like Levant's near absence of empathy for his "enemies" is his worst flaw then he should be listened to. No wonder Levant is now in this alt-right/pro-Trump gutter because if there's anything these creeps all have in common it's a lack of empathy where they genuinely just don't care at all about the lynch-mob kind of hurt they cause.

Not just that, but I think Coren strikes at the heart of why so many people, including many conservatives, can't stand him. It's one thing to call somebody like Justin Trudeau incompetent or to criticize his government's actions, but it's quite another to be creepily fondling My Little Pony figures when talking about him, or ranting about his parents' sex lives.

What was really surprising in reading that article was seeing how long Levant has been engaging in nasty habits. His old high school teacher talked about how he would make up lies to support his arguments, he gets into a ridiculous pissing match with his own party leader when the leader decided he wanted to run in the same riding (which should be a leader's prerogative), he threatens to libel elected officials from his own party (pretty rich for a guy who portrays himself as a free speech martyr for being sued), he twisted media tips and stories to such an extent they were useless for media outlets and political parties alike, he repeatedly makes factual errors in his work.

That said, on one level I actually feel sorry for the poor bastard. The video he uploaded where he describes what he considers the blackmail attempts by his former employees is being flooded with anti-Semitic comments accusing him of being everything from a Zionist to hoarding shekels. It's one thing to call somebody like him a douche, but it's quite another to be ranting about his ethnocultural heritage.

[Public_Domain]

I remember when Milo had his moment of lost popularity. So many of these psychos thankful, to be rid of a gay.

It is sad.

Would be nice if these fallen ideologues took that betrayal and used it for some critical self-inspection, instead of just pandering to the same monsters that will happily be rid of him at a moment's notice simply because he's not useful enough anymore to pander to the moderates, just another special interest leech who isn't helping the right wing.

Inevitable, and sad. Oh well. Fuck you Ezra.

[Thanos]

JaredMilne JaredMilne:

That said, on one level I actually feel sorry for the poor bastard. The video he uploaded where he describes what he considers the blackmail attempts by his former employees is being flooded with anti-Semitic comments accusing him of being everything from a Zionist to hoarding shekels. It's one thing to call somebody like him a douche, but it's quite another to be ranting about his ethnocultural heritage.

He fed the beast so it's not possible to have any sympathy when it turned and bit him. He gave a platform to someone like Faith Goldy with her "international globalists" and "JQ (Jewish Question)" nonsense, both of which are code terms used to demonize Jews that go as far back as the Third Reich, if not even further back to when the Czarist Okhrana first issued the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. If Levant was that willing to throw his own people under the bus to a bunch of Jew-hating conspiracist lunatics on the alt-right then he's even a worse person than already's been displayed.

[BRAH]

_____________________

Whatever happens with Rebel Media it started out holding Government accountable for policies that affected the average Canadian. They found their voice holding Rachel Notley accountable for her policies that brought Albertans who have been hurt by those policies together because before Rebel Media they didn't have a voice as the Lamestream Canadian Media didn't want to hear from them.

Ezra started focusing on issues aligning Rebel Media with groups and people who's views had nothing to do with what affected the average Canadian.

[Tricks]

"Poor pathetic jew"

I mean I don't like the guy, but holy fuck hide your bigotry more there bud.