Owned by Ezra Levant Country Canada Headquarters Toronto, Ontario | Slogan "Fearless" Language English | |
Launched February 14, 2015 (2015-02-14) | ||
The Rebel Media (often stylized as TheRebel.media) is a right-wing Canadian online political and social commentary media platform founded in February 2015 by former Sun News Network host Ezra Levant. The Rebel Media broadcasts its content on the Rebel Media YouTube channel and website.
Contents
Former Sun News Network parliamentary correspondent Brian Lilley and former SNN reporter Faith Goldy have joined the outlet. Gavin McInnes is also a contributor.
Levant argued that his online production would be unencumbered by the regulatory and distribution difficulties faced by Sun News Network and that its lower production costs would make it more viable. A crowdfunding campaign raised roughly CAD 100,000 for the project.
As of January 6, 2017, the YouTube channel of the Rebel Media has more than 500,000 subscribers.
History
The Rebel Media was formed by Levant and Lilley following the closure of the Sun News Network, on which they were leading personalities. It soon attracted a number of other former Sun News Network personalities such as David Menzies, Paige MacPherson, Faith Goldy, Patrick Moore, and briefly by Michael Coren.
In the summer of 2015, the channel, led by Levant, launched a campaign to boycott Tim Hortons, a chain of Canadian coffee shops, after it rejected in-store ads from Enbridge due to complaints from customers opposed to the oil pipeline projects being promoted by the ads.
In early 2016, the Alberta government banned The Rebel Media's correspondents from press briefings on the grounds that, because Ezra Levant had testified in court in 2014 that he was a columnist or commentator rather than a reporter, none of his current correspondents could be considered to be journalists. On 17 February 2016, the government admitted that it made a mistake and said that it would allow The Rebel Media correspondents into press briefings. The Canadian Association of Journalists supported preventing government from choosing journalism coverage."
In late 2016, The Rebel Media advocated for accreditation by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to permit its access as journalists to their event. The Rebel Media had previously published articles claiming that the public is being deceived about climate change. Its criticism of journalists at the 2015 Paris climate change event was also described as inaccurate by DeSmog Canada. Rebel Media also criticized that UN had accepted The Tyee, National Observer and DeSmog Canada.
Rebel Media did receive support from the federal Canadian government and three journalism organizations and eventually was granted access by the UN.
Lauren Southern, one of The Rebel Media's popular contributors, left the organization in March 2017.
In March 2017, the Rebel sent several of its contributors on a tour of Israel. The trip became controversial when Gavin McInnes made controversial comments about the Holocaust and also alleged Jews of being responsible for the Holodomor and the Treaty of Versailles. He subsequently explained that these are not his own views. McInnes also produced a humourous video for Rebel called "Ten Things I Hate about Jews", later retitled "Ten Things I Hate About Israel" which also resulted in accusations of antisemitism.
Past contributors
Shows
The Rebel has several shows, including: