Conservative, Inc. seems to be coming apart at the seams lately. It’s one big fight after the next. When Steven Crowder called out “Big Con” for writing contracts that appeared to take advantage of creators, everyone took cover or took a side. That noise went on for a while until Project Veritas kicked James O’Keefe out of the organization, alleging abusive behavior. We’re still trying to figure that one out. Running in the background to all of that was the story of how Eliza Bleu worked her way into the inner circles of conservative entertainment and influencers with a dubious tale of being trafficked. When questioned, she became today’s most notorious censor, striking YouTube channels and Twitter accounts that post publicly available photos and clips of her racy video vixen past.
Now comes a huge lawsuit against Blaze Media, brought by talk show host Sydney Watson, who says that her time on the podcast You Are Here with Elijah Schaffer was a nightmare. Her lawyer is Townhall’s own Kurt Schlichter, another conservative media insider. In case you haven’t noticed, there’s an internal war going on inside the conservative media space. And maybe it’s time to blow it up and start over.
The details of Watson’s claims say that she was never informed she would be participating in a show that ended up focusing on gross sexual themes most of the time, with her — the only female on the set — just having to put up with it. She says her complaints to management went unheard and unanswered. The Blaze was founded by Glenn Beck, who tells people he’s a devout Mormon. Yet, Watson says Schaffer would get drunk before filming and also offer alcohol to guests, who would then go on to berate women during the show, making Watson feel targeted and humiliated.
If you want to read the details in the suit (and there are lots more beyond this), you can check out Red State’s coverage.
I’m more interested in what this reveals about right-wing media. Something ugly is going on in some right-wing entertainment spaces that I’ve witnessed and been a target of myself. I call it Clubhouse Syndrome. “No Girls Allowed” is basically nailed to the door and if you are allowed, you’d better be prepared to listen to anti-female rhetoric and not push back against it. If you do try to defend the women who are not lying harpies (because there are many of us), there’s only one response you can expect, and it won’t be civil. I’ve been on the receiving end of this kind of abuse very publicly for trying to have a rational discussion about men and women. It’s not fun but there’s a subset of “our side” that thinks it’s hilarious and acceptable to treat women this way.
Referenced in Watson’s lawsuit is this disgusting display of unhinged anger directed at her for doing her job by grifter Jack Murphy, who was a king of the manosphere until this moment unmasked him for the fraud he was. Schaffer did nothing to stop his guest from abusing his co-host.
