RedState, a conservative news and commentary website, laid off many of its writers Friday, some of whom believe it was because they were critical of President Trump.
Conservative blogger and radio host Erick Erickson, who used to edit RedState, reported on his own website that it was “a mass purge of talent.”
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“My understanding from the writers is that there were two contracts, one more expensive than the other,” Erickson wrote. “Most of those on the expensive contracts were tossed, though some very good ones will stay. Of those under the cheaper contracts, it seems the dividing line was loyalty to the president.”
Ben Howe, a conservative writer and longtime blogger at RedState, suggested on Twitter that the site’s parent company Salem had let him go because he was not a strong Trump supporter.
“I haven’t been fired since I got into an argument with the brewmaster at Hop’s Bar & Brewery in 2001,” he said. “Mostly because I’ve been self-employed. But pleased that my next adventure in being fired was likely again because I won’t keep my mouth shut. But in fairness, sustained increased traffic and ad revenue not based on click bait designed to present a philandering man-child as Reagan reborn probably made certain executives’ cocktail party conversations positively unbearable.”
CNN reported that an internal memo by an executive at RedState’s sister publication Townhall.com said the layoffs were necessary because “we could no longer support the entire roster of writers and editors.”
Other conservative publications have one through similar rounds of lay offs, including Glenn Beck’s TheBlaze.com and IJReview.
