Gavin McInnes’ stock has been tanking recently.

In October, members of the Proud Boys, a far-right group which McInnes founded, brutally attacked counter-protesters outside the Metropolitan Republican Club in New York City, where McInnes had been delivering a speech. The outrage generated by the attack caused the NYPD to crack down, and McInnes was forced to help arrange the surrender to the police of several Proud Boys accused of assault.

A fortnight ago, McInnes publicly announced that he had quit the Proud Boys, saying that he hoped the gesture “could help alleviate their sentencing.” He made the announcement just two days after The Guardian revealed the FBI had categorized the Proud Boys as an “extremist group with ties to white nationalism.”

Since the arrests, the Proud Boys have been falling apart and are beset by infighting. McInnes himself, however, appears to be doing fine. On Monday, CNN reported he would be joining Blaze Media, a new conservative media company that merges TheBlaze and CRTV.


“Gavin McInnes is a comedian and provocateur,” Blaze Media’s co-president Gaston Mooney told CNN. “[He] is one of the many varied voices and viewpoints on Blaze Media platforms.”

Blaze Media was co-founded by Glenn Beck, who repeatedly advocated conspiracy theories during his time as a Fox News pundit and also famously said that Obama had a “deep seated hatred for white people.” In recent years — and coincidentally as Beck’s media startups flounder — Beck has appeared almost apologetic, reportedly blaming himself for increasing the country’s political divisions and paranoia.

With the hiring of McInnes, it seems clear Beck has not learnt his lesson.

Blaze Media’s second co-founder is conservative commentator Mark Levin, who founded LevinTV, which later morphed into CRTV. “Tens of millions of Americans have had it with the biased, ideologically driven mainstream media outlets that sanctimoniously advance their own agendas under the guise of ‘news’ and ‘journalism,'” Levine told Townhall recently. “Conservatives actually believe in a free press and the rest of the Constitution.”

The announcement of McInnes’ new gig was made just three days after he was denied a visa to Australia on grounds of “bad character,” a decision he did not appeal. More than 81,000 Australians signed a petition asking for McInnes to be banned from the country, which he was attempting to visit to take part in a speaking tour with Milo Yiannopoulos and British far-right figure Tommy Robinson.