Thursday, December 06, 2018

Potemkin Media, revisited.


[UPDATED JAN 5, 2019, SEE BELOW.]

In my continuing quest to chronicle the inexorable disintegration of the dumpster fire that is Rebel Media, we check in to see yet another rodent has fled the S.S. Crapfest.

From only last month, we still had 13 bloviating hacks hanging on for dear life:


And today, Dec 6, 2018? Ruh roh ...


Why, yes, it is the financially-incapacitated Katie Hopkins who's swiped a lifeboat and disappeared into the distance.

At this point, it's just a matter of time.

UPPITY DATE, JAN 5, 2019:  What did I say about "just a matter of time?"


Now gone would be one Tanveer Ahmed, who's grabbed a life preserver and launched himself off the poop deck of the S.S. Ratfuck, hoping to avoid the inevitable whirlpool.

We'll check in next month.

AFTERSNARK: Given that Rob Shimshock seems to have taken a powder lately:


I predict he's the next rodent of unusual size who will vanish quietly from the increasingly-listing S.S. Rubble. Let's watch ...

Saturday, November 24, 2018

... and in closing, send money.

Another day, another plaintive screed from, this time, Rebel Media's Sheila Gunn Reid, holding out her chicken bucket and begging the rubes ^H^H^H^H^H supporters to toss in a few dollars so she can go to Poland and yell questions from the other side of a fence at diplomats who haven't the slightest interest in what she has to say:


But all this raises the obvious question -- after all this time, why isn't Rebel Media self-sustaining? After all, they've had over three years to develop and implement some sort of business model and yet, week after week, we hear Ezra or Sheila or David "The Menses" Menzies exhorting the yokels to open their wallets over and over and ... well, you get the idea. So what's the problem here?

One would think a viable business model for Der Rebel would be to simply sell advertising. After all, with over (as Ezra likes to boast) a million YouTube subscribers, surely one could appreciate that The Rebel has developed an audience, so why aren't advertisers lining up at Ezra's door to hand over cash for some prime real estate at Rebel's home page? And therein lies the problem.

I believe it's safe to say that Ezra and his assorted collection of racists, bigots, white nationalists and anti-Semites has become so unspeakably toxic that no one is willing to take a chance on being associated with them. I believe it's safe to say that Ezra had the opportunity to actually become an alternative media outlet (catering to the intellectually shortchanged, mind you) if only he had managed to restrain himself and not lash out savagely at anyone and everyone that crossed his path. Sadly, that was not to be, and The Rebel has, at this point, pretty much burned every conceivable bridge in terms of attracting paying advertisers. Ever.

Don't believe me? Take a look at Rebel Media's current home page, where you have to scroll all the way to the bottom to find the link for potential advertisers:


and if you click on that link, well, this is what you get:


That's right ... even Rebel Media appears to have accepted that they are so toxic, there's no point in even trying to attract advertisers.

Rebel Media loves to brag about its independence, that it takes no government money, and never will. But none of that principle ever prevented Ezra from making money off of advertisers; no, what prevented him was his inability to control himself, to the point where no one wants anything to do with him.

So the next time someone at The Rebel passes around the chicken bucket for donations, perhaps the proper response should be, "If you people weren't such reprehensible yobs, maybe you wouldn't need to be constantly asking us for help."

It's just a thought.

AFTERSNARK: The toxicity of the Rebel Media brand can be seen here, wherein the grownups at CFB Borden want nothing to do with even accepting charity from the Rebelers. It gets even funnier when a second military charity takes a pass.

Man, that's gotta sting.

Sunday, November 18, 2018

The continuing collapse of Rebel Media.

It's been almost a year since your humble correspondent documented the sad yet entertaining collapse of Ezra Levant's boutique media outlet, Rebel Media, which behooves us to check in on same and see how much further Canada's "Rebel Commander" has fallen. It is not a pretty sight.

From 16 vacuous yobs as of the end of January of 2018, we are now down to 13:


but that doesn't begin to tell the story.

It's educational to identify the rats that fled the foundering S.S. Rebel -- Tommy Robinson (possibly destined for a UK prison in the near future), Eric Duhaime, Christopher Wilson, Alexander Jones, Mark Latham, John Cardillo, Lucy Brown, and the utterly vacuous Holly Nicholas, replaced by a new assortment of hacks, shills and propagandists. But this is still not the whole story.

As before, it's instructional to look a bit closer to see which of the above 13 can legitimately claim to be producing anything on a regular basis, and the picture is not a healthy one.

Rebeler Rob Shimshock does not seem to be holding up his end productivity-wise, producing only six pieces in the last five months:


Even worse, Rebeler Tanveer Ahmed seems to have gone missing in action sometime last July:


Even superstar acquisition and bankruptcy looking for a place to happen Katie Hopkins seems to have fallen off a cliff sometime last month:


As for new arrivals, well, say hello to smoldering hunk of Alberta manhood Keean Bexte:



whose main claim to fame seems to be the love affair with white nationalism required to hang out at Rebel Media these days:



In any event, once one discards the mostly (if not entirely) unproductive "journalists" at Rebel, what one is left with is, charitably, maybe nine people keeping the lights on. This is quite the comedown from the heady days of Ezra bragging about 50 staff members:


One suspects the Rebel Media Christmas party this year is going to be a quiet affair in a Motel 6 in Oshawa, featuring a pre-packaged tray of cold cuts and cheese cubes from Safeway, and a 24-pack of Dr. Pepper to wash it down.

That's if all nine of those people are still there.

AFTERSNARK: It's hilarious to see newbie Keean Bexte sporting the pompous title of "Calgary Mission Specialist." One is reminded of ...


Sunday, September 23, 2018

JUXTAPOSE!

Media outlet that relentlessly misinforms millennials now mocks millennials for being misinformed.


Friday, September 21, 2018

P.S.: Send money.

One wonders if diehard supporters of Rebel Media are getting at all tired of their donations being used to keep Rebelers out of prison.



Wednesday, September 19, 2018

Well, that didn't last long.

Whoopsie:


Being "de-platformed" to deprive someone of their right to free speech ... yeah, that must just fucking suck.

AFTERSNARK: I will leave it to my readers to ponder the irony of someone who runs his own media outlet and brags of over one million YouTube Subscribers of being "de-platformed."

FURTHER MUSINGS: What are the chances that this cruise was a total fiction from the beginning, meant only for political propaganda purposes after it was cancelled due to possible "violence by extremist opponents?"

I'm just asking.

WHILE WE'RE HERE, there's a certain hypocrisy in Rebel Media whining about being de-platformed, given that Rebel has a long and inglorious history of boycotting anyone that happens to disagree with them. One can see their history of boycotts against (among others) Tim Hortons, Earls Restaurant, Porter Airlines, and Whistler Blackcomb.

It takes some nerve to announce one boycott after another, then whine about being "de-platformed." I suspect the irony is lost on some of these people.

Monday, September 17, 2018

She could have settled inexpensively but ... no.

Why exactly did Katie Hopkins file for an Individual Voluntary Arrangement? How much did she actually owe? Oh ...


At this point, five thousands pounds seems like a bargain, hindsight being what it is.

Saturday, September 08, 2018

Down the memory hole.

It seems like only yesterday (well, August 11, 2018) when Ezra was sniggering publicly, just waiting for the chance to blame a Mooslim for the murder of four people, including two police officers, in Fredericton, NB:


However, the instant Ezra learned that it was just a homegrown, white boy, well, let's check out how aggressively he pursued that story starting August 12:


And the result? Ruh roh ...


I'm guessing even Joe Warmington has a longer attention span than that. Or maybe not.

AFTERSNARK: From back on August 11, here's a comment from a Rebel Media acolyte that does not seem to have aged well:



Since then, well, there's been a whole lotta quiet:


It's almost like they don't want to talk about it, being a media outlet and all.

DOUBLE PLUS AFTERSNARK: That moment when you realize that a juvenile, assholish, throwaway tweet from last year didn't age particularly well:

Friday, September 07, 2018

Well, this is ... inconvenient.

Alleged Fredericton shooter charged with killing four people including two police officers, caught on tape admitting he gets his news from (among other sources) Rebel Media:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=199&v=tnr-cXbI9KQ

Yeah, that's kind of awkward. Check it all out here:


AFTERSNARK: This looks like the kind of tweet from back in August that has the potential to backfire spectacularly:


Thursday, September 06, 2018

Just another three-hour tour.

Apparently, the sea-faring adventurers at Rebel Media are putting together another voyage of the damned, chartering an entire luxury rowboat to putter around Europe next year. I will simply shrug my shoulders over this, except to point out the eyebrow-raising price structure.

If you book with Rebel Media, the cruise alone will cost you $3590 (USD), which most emphatically does not include airfare:


Curiously, if you wanted exactly the same cruise but generic, you would pay significantly less:


In other words, there is almost a $1700 (USD) markup for exactly the same outing, solely for the pleasure of hanging with ... I'll just leave it at that.

AFTERSNARK: Actually, it's worth noting what appears to be a truly onerous deposit/cancellation clause. First, if you put down a deposit of $1000 (USD) and have to cancel for some reason, you are not getting that $1000 back. Period.


Note also that it appears that the entire fee must be paid in full by Dec 10, 2018, which is (coincidentally) about 180 days before the cruise, after which, if you change your mind or have to cancel, you get nothing back. Zip. Nada. Squat.

Worse, the wording seems to suggest that, even if Rebel Media cancels the cruise, you are still not entitled to a refund. I could be wrong, but that's just the way I'm reading it.

I recommend travel insurance.

Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Well, how about that?

Apparently, not serving a proper Notice of Libel within the required timeframe as required by Ontario's Libel and Slander Act is pretty much fatal to one's SLAPP suit in Ontario:


Cool.

Sunday, August 05, 2018

I'm sure it's just a coincidence.

Over at CBC, we learn that Russian trolls are instigating trouble by focusing on a number of certain hot-button issues:


Gosh ... the Fort McMurray fire, Quebec City mosque shooting and border crossings ... an obsession with those topics sounds creepily familiar.

I'm sure it's just my imagination.

Sunday, July 29, 2018

JUXTAPOSE!

Dear Lorrie:


Yeah, about that, Lorrie ...


I'm just trying to be helpful.

AFTERSNARK: Keep in mind that the Lorrie Goldstein who openly doxxed the family of the recent Toronto shooter, with absolutely no evidence whatsoever about who he was or his background, is the same Lorrie Goldstein who has witnessed Faith Goldy's behaviour for years and is apparently still not prepared to draw any firm conclusions about her.

Go figure.

BONUS JUXTAPOSE: It doesn't get more ironic than these two tweets appearing next to one another when one does the appropriate Twitter search:

Wednesday, July 25, 2018

JUXTAPOSE!

File under "Blog posts that did not age well":


Wait for it ... wait for it ... wait for it ...


HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

I'm just going to leave this here:

Tuesday, July 24, 2018

JUXTAPOSE!

Right-wing provocateur Alex Jones explicitly threatens Robert Mueller:



and still has a verified Twitter account with 820K followers.

I, on the other hand, was permanently suspended from Twitter for calling the execrable Senator Denise Batters a "twatwaffle."

Make of that what you will.

Sunday, July 22, 2018

Thursday, July 19, 2018

You keep using that word "unapologetic" ...

For someone who insists that he's "unapologetic" ...


... Derek Fildebrandt sure seems to spend a lot of time, you know, apologizing:


Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Yeah, that must suck.

Gosh, being tossed for your political beliefs ... I have no idea how that must feel. Oh, wait ...


Tuesday, July 10, 2018

Well, that flirtation with lucidity didn't last long.

Wherein former PCPO candidate and ex-Rebeler Andrew Lawton realizes he doesn't need to hide the batshit fucking crazy any more:


 

Monday, July 09, 2018

JUXTAPOSE!

Pot. Kettle.


And speaking of apologizing for stuff you insist you don't remember ...


Yeah, that's awkward.