Posted on 04/27/2018 1:28:55 PM PDT by ethom
Salem Media, owner of the influential conservative outlet RedState, froze the site on Friday and dismissed many of its writers.
Bloggers were locked out of their accounts -- some just temporarily, while the cuts were made, and others permanently.
Erick Erickson, the site's longtime editor who left in 2015, tweeted about what he called the "mass firing" on Friday morning.
"Very sad to see, but not really surprising given Salem's direction," he wrote. "And, finally, after all these years, they've turned off my account."
RedState writers work on contract and are paid based on the amount of traffic to their posts.
Salem had no immediate comment. But an internal memo obtained by CNNMoney confirmed the housecleaning.
"We had to make some tough changes to RedState today," Townhall general manager Jonathan Garthwaite wrote in the memo. "While these changes are painful, they were necessary once we reached the conclusion that we could no longer support the entire roster of writers and editors."
RedState, a 13-year-old blog that was founded by Erick Erickson, is one of several sites in Townhall Media's portfolio. Townhall, in turn, is owned by Salem Media Group, a conservative media company that also operates radio stations and publishes books.
RedState has been reflective of the divides within the GOP and the conservative movement, with a spectrum of writers with varying reactions to Trump's political choices and personality conflicts.
Garthwaite did not respond to a followup request for comment on Friday.
His initial email to writers said, "there's no getting around the fact that this is awful news, but I value your contribution to RedState and I hope you will stick it through and keep RedState going."
However, some contributors then received a separate email indicating that they were out. Their accounts were locked, meaning publishing rights were revoked.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
I remember Eric left Redstate some years ago, but I never followed why.
None will be missed.
He’s got Ken Matthews. Why would Rush want Ericson.
... his “radio show’ is 3 minutes of narcissistic self promotion interrupted every 6 minutes by traffic/new/weather reports...
He has sat in for Rush. I turn it off Everytime he does.
Would have been funnier if it read “mass firing squad” at Red State!
At one time I thought Bush was pretty good, but as time passes, I have lost more and more respect for him.
He went eight years and said nothing bad about Obama, but could not wait to begin criticizing Trump.
I took a dislike to "Red State" when I first heard of it because it accepted the liberal propaganda of coloring us "red" and incorporated it into it's name. Then Erick Erickson immediately started mocking anyone who challenged Obama's eligibility for office, and he only became increasingly more arrogant and offensive ever since.
I don't know why the admin wouldn't let you post from it, but I often don't understand some of the decisions made by admin.
As for the term "neocon", I've heard it used as a disparagement many times, but I never really got the rational behind it. I know a lot of people insinuate something with it and I wish they would knock it off, because the actions of the "neocons" in supporting the invasion of Iraq were in my opinion, in the best interests of the United States, and whether they benefited anyone else is immaterial to the main point that they benefited us, the US.
If it helped an ally, then so far as i'm concerned, that was a "win/win!" If taking action against potential threats to our country is "neocon", then i'm a neocon too.
Just my two cents.
NeoCons aka RINOs aka Leftists; historically, Democrats strong on military intervention for ideological 'humanitarian' reasons aka compassionate Conservatism. NeoCons 'feel' it's okay to impose a 'good' ideology aka nation build...
Eric had a heart attack - literally - over the Trump election. Now he’s lost his blog.
Problem is nowadays, the media serves as nothing but a propaganda corps against US Interests. We seldom get the truth from them.
I'm proud of the map showing what areas support conservatism, but I still object to them coloring us "red".
I know it's a small thing, but I still hate it. :)
Making the Democrats red was too close to being truthful for the Ministry of Propaganda.
Originally Red was Democrat and Blue was Republican. It was changed by the media in the 2000 election cycle because Blue elicited calm feeling and red more confrontational feelings. It was done to aid the Democrats like everything else the media does.
It was changed in 1992 by ABC. I know because I was screaming at the television when I noticed it. 1992 was the year that Bill Clinton, the Russia visiting, behind the Iron curtain touring, being the guest of prominent communist officials in the late 1960s, bastard was running for the Presidency.
Making him "red" made his links to communism all too apparent.
There is a difference between the objectives of Self Defense, National Security, Regime Change, and National Building. Many times the objectives overlap; in essence a consensus is made. Take Syria for example: NeoCons/RINOs (Graham and McCain) want Regime Change while Conservatives simply want to Eradicate ISIS and get out...
IMHO going after Iraq WMD was the right decision; however, what followed and how it was executed was all wrong (hope and change nation building) was all NeoCon...
P.S. Do some research beyond the mass media fakenews narratives: NeoCons have ALWAYS been Leftists.
...as an aside: Ask and answer for yourself: Why the distinctions; for example between Conservative, Neo Conservative, and Compassionate Conservative? I suggest it is because there are objectively differences; further, said differences are Leftist in nature...
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