When Mark Levin’s CRTV merged with Glenn Beck’s The Blaze earlier this month, CNSNews.com — as befits a “news” outlet so convinced (or has been paid to be convinced) that Levin can do no wrong that it has run well over 100 fawning stories on Levin so far in 2018 — gave the merger its usual gushy treatment.
Craig Bannister proclaimed in a Dec. 3 article: “The new Blaze Media company debuted Monday, consolidating the draw of popular conservative pundits Mark Levin and Glenn Beck under one multiplatform entity with a combined monthly reach of 165 million.” Bannister also included a list of the “popular pundits” who would appear on the merged channel. At the top of the list was Michelle Malkin, who would announce the next day she was departing the channel.
Also on the list was Eric Bolling, who had joined then-CRTV after leaving Fox News following allegations he sexually harassed his colleagues there. (And, no, neither CNS nor its Media Research Center parent has ever reported on the allegations against Bolling.)
Conspicuously missing from that list, however, was longtime CRTV host Gavin McInnes, founder of the Proud Boys, whose propensity for violence and white nationalist leanings have earned them classification by the FBI as an extremist group. As we’ve documented, CNS and the MRC has also censored any controversy regarding McInnes and the Proud Boys.
The next day, Emily Ward wrote the standard fawning CNS piece featuring Levin on his radio show spinning the merger as “not about personalities; it’s about liberty.” No mention of the controversies surrounding McInnes and Bolling, of course.
A few days after that, though, Blaze Media fired McInnes and his YouTube account was disabled. Curiously, CNS didn’t find that, or Malkin’s departure, to be news worth reporting despite its reporting on the merger.