Could Charlottesville be Rebel Media’s undoing? Supporters, contributors and advertisers are fleeing the controversial website
These are (again) tough days for the Rebel Commander.
But this time it feels different for Ezra Levant and his Rebel Media because the appalling scene that unfolded in Charlottesville, Va., last weekend, threatens to wash away the house of sand his alternative media site is built upon.
Levant this week disavowed the alt-right movement following the Charlottesville invasion by neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan and white supremacists, resulting in the death of a young woman and two state troopers.
This after his “reporter” on the scene, Faith Goldy, seemed to be cheering on the white supremacists in the moments before a car plowed into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer.
The alt-right used to be fun, when he first heard of it a year ago, Levant wrote in a memo posted on The Rebel website Monday. He thought it was a home for “unashamed right-wingedness, with a sense of humour.”
That sounds a little like an arsonist who used to burn down houses for fun, but now, a year later, has come to realize that matches cause fire.
Levant is nothing if not resilient. His following is devoted. He has not been slowed by lawsuits, forced apologies or social media attacks. Such controversy is his oxygen; his crack cocaine.
He was feeding off it again Tuesday: “Being controversial is part of our style — we’re Tabasco and the other guys are vanilla. Not everyone likes Tabasco, but those who like it, like it a lot.”
He says he is not losing any advertising revenue and, asked if he can survive, he says, “You must acknowledge the irony of being asked that by a legacy newspaper. We have more subscribers than the (Toronto) Star.”
But if The Rebel is becoming toxic, and there are signs it is, he will not come back this time.
He lost his co-founder, Brian Lilley, an Ottawa radio host who wrote Monday that if The Rebel’s “lack of editorial and behavioural judgment” is left unchecked it will destroy the site and all those around it.
“People didn’t just cross the line there,” he told me, “they jumped over the line.”
On Tuesday, Rebel freelancer Barbara Kay tweeted she too had resigned.
Conservative politicians, notably Michael Chong and even Chris Alexander of “lock her up” fame in Alberta, have vowed to shun The Rebel.
Doug Schweitzer, a candidate for the United Conservative Party in Alberta, called for a Rebel boycott and told his two better-known opponents, Jason Kenney and Brian Jean, to stop playing “footsie” with Levant’s website and condemn its coverage of Charlottesville.
Schweitzer could be playing wedge politics himself — both Jean and Kenney took to social media to condemn the violence and hate on the weekend — but his message garnered a lot of attention.
The city of Edmonton, Porter Airlines, the ski resort Whistler Blackcomb and Ottawa Tourism have pulled their ads from the site, and others have changed their profiles so their automated systems will not follow potential customers there.
This was all building before Goldy’s live stream from the protest Saturday in which she mocks counterprotesters as she walks with them.
The supremacists had the permit for the demonstration, but it only takes chants of “Black Lives Matter” to be left alone by police, she says.
Police were trying to shut down the altright while counterprotesters were illegally on the street, she reports.
“There is freedom of assembly for one group and not the other,” she said. “If you’re the alt-right, you’re not allowed to talk about ideas.” Then a woman was murdered. Defending herself, Goldy wrote: “I do not bathe in tears of white guilt. That does not make me a white supremacist. “I oppose state multiculturalism and affirmative action. That does not make me a racist. “I reject cultural relativism. That does not make me a fascist.”
Gavin McInnes, best known in Canada for his Proud Boys who disrupted an Indigenous protest in Halifax on Canada Day, also disavowed the alt-right on the site.
He laid blame for the Charlottesville killing on the man behind the wheel of the car, but he had a list of blame and at No. 5 he had ... feminists. “One thing I can’t help but notice,” he tells his viewers, “is how empowered these women feel. Why are women at riots?” he asked.
This column would be the last place to look for a suggestion that free speech should be stifled.
But sometimes you forfeit the right to that speech and if the oxygen that keeps this hate and racism alive is extinguished, those who snuff it out should be applauded.
The Rebel cruise sets sail for the Caribbean in November. If you signed up, better hope it is refundable.
Tim Harper writes on national affairs. He can be reached at tjharper77@gmail.com, Twitter: @nutgraf1