Rebel News (also known as The Rebel Media and The Rebel) is a Canadian far-right political and social commentary media website operated by Rebel News Network Ltd. It has been described as a "global platform" for the anti-Muslim ideology known as counter-jihad. It was founded in February 2015 by former Sun News Network personalities Ezra Levant and Brian Lilley. Rebel News broadcasts its content only on the internet and has been compared to Breitbart News in the US. Rebel News has been described as being part of the alt-right movement. Former Sun News reporter Faith Goldy joined Rebel News after its launch, but was fired for her coverage of the 2017 Charlottesville rally and for conducting an interview with The Daily Stormer. A co-founder and two freelancers resigned in protest of the coverage. Gavin McInnes, founder of the far-right neo-fascist organization Proud Boys, was a contributor. McInnes departed in 2017, then temporarily rejoined the site for a period in 2019. In the midst of the 2021 Canadian federal election, Justin Trudeau accused Rebel News of spreading misinformation, especially with regard to COVID-19 vaccines. Rebel News has promoted climate change denial.
History
Prior to the official opening of the media franchise operation as a corporation, it operated for a number of years as an individual effort by Levant, who styled himself "The Rebel." At least one of his ideas, to fight "anti-Christian bigots on Nanaimo city council," attracted support from university student and now Member of Parliament Dane Lloyd.
2015–2017 The Rebel Media was formed by Levant and Lilley following the closure of the Sun News Network. Levant said 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. Levant has cited Breitbart News, the American far-right news website, as an inspiration. A crowdfunding campaign raised roughly CA$100,000 for the project. The site soon attracted a number of other former Sun News Network personalities such as David Menzies, Paige MacPherson, Faith Goldy, Patrick Moore and, briefly, 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, after first being refused press accreditation for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) COP22 Climate Change Conference, Rebel Media was allowed to send two correspondents to COP22. Levant wrote that "We're not being excluded because we have an opinion. We're being excluded because we have the wrong opinion." Rebel Media received support from the Environment Minister Catherine McKenna and three journalism organizations in getting the UNFCC to grant this access, after Levant's October 17 appeal to Justin Trudeau. Following the Quebec City mosque shooting of 2017, Rebel Media and Levant in particular were harshly criticized in the National Observer for their reporting and pursuing "a narrative about violence by immigrants," though the shooting was committed by the far-right Alexandre Bissonnette. Kai Nagata noted "Levant and Goldy were both speakers at a rally in Toronto last week organized by The Rebel to protest a motion by Liberal MP Iqra Khalid, which calls on the government to condemn Islamophobia'" in response to the shooting. In 2017, Rebel Media hired far-right activist Tommy Robinson, founder of the avowedly anti-Islamic English Defence League, as its British correspondent. In March 2017, one of their correspondents, Gavin McInnes, made controversial comments defending Holocaust deniers, accused the Jews of being responsible for the Holodomor and the Treaty of Versailles, and said he was "becoming anti-Semitic". He later said his comments were taken out of context. McInnes also produced a satirical video for Rebel called "Ten Things I Hate about Jews", later retitled "Ten Things I Hate About Israel". Rebel also hosted a video by McInnes in which he encouraged viewers to brawl against antifa as his group the Proud Boys did, saying, "When they go low, go lower." During the 2017 French Presidential Election, Jack Posobiec, The Rebel Media's Washington, D.C. bureau chief, supported far-right leader Marine Le Pen and played a role in the 2017 Macron e-mail leaks.
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