About a week ago, all Internet hell broke loose for fans of Glenn Beck’s right-wing outlet, TheBlaze, when host Tomi Lahren came out as pro-choice on The View. This caused a massive social media backlash — after all, it was only three months ago when Lahren labeled abortion as “murder” — which seemingly culminated in a week-long suspension for Lahren. Yet the situation (which offended Trevor Noah) may have grown even more dire for Lahren. Page Six writes that the rising conservative shock jock has been “banned permanently” from Beck’s media empire.
Some suspected that Tomi had changed her abortion stance to grab attention, and if that’s the case, she got what she wanted. However, her comments on The View made sense. Lahren called it “hypocritical” for conservatives to oppose abortion while also wanting to deny public assistance to those who can’t financially support children without help. That well-reasoned approach may have been the problem, ultimately, since Beck is frantically trying to repair his own image and may believe that Lahren’s words damage his conservative cred:
“Glenn is reminding the world of his conservative principles by sidelining Tomi after she insulted conservatives by calling them hypocrites,” one Beck insider told [Page Six]. Fans think Beck — once a big Ted Cruz backer — has lost his conservative bona fides. He went on Samantha Bee’s TBS show in December and apologized for being divisive in the past.
“He’s trying to balance being a leading conservative thinker and also someone who can unify the country,” the Beck associate told me. “He just couldn’t sit by and watch as Tomi Lahren said there’s no way for conservatives to justify anything other than being pro-choice.”
“Beck’s trying to reinvent himself,” a former insider told me. “But he’s burned too many bridges.”
So, Lahren’s (alleged) firing is less about her and more about her ailing boss? Perhaps. Page Six points out that Beck’s viewership has dramatically fallen over the past three years (his online empire has lost over two-thirds of its monthly unique visitors), and he’s feeling desperate enough to give Lahren the boot to save face with conservative fans. The downswing of Beck’s empire has happened as he continues to apologize profusely — both while visiting Samantha Bee and groveling to the Washington Post — for being so divisive during the Obama years (this has also upset Beck’s viewers, yes?).
So far, no confirmation for this report has arrived from Beck or from Lahren’s Twitter account. She previously acknowledged the week-long suspension with a laughing-emoji tweet that read, “So I’ve got some ‘me’ time.” As of now, she’s radio silent.