Former Fox News host Eric Bolling, who left that network over allegations of lewd behavior, and who left his subsequent gig at Sinclair Broadcast Group after questioning the use of face masks and lockdowns, will have his own show at Newsmax, starting in July.
From The New York Times:
Mr. Bolling is the latest Trump ally to sign up at Newsmax. The network said last week it had added a pair of on-air analysts with close ties to the former president: J. Hogan Gidley, a former press aide in the Trump White House, and Jenna Ellis, a senior legal adviser to the Trump 2020 campaign.
Here’s what we reported when Bolling left Fox, in 2017:
You may recall that Bolling was suspended from Fox after a report that he sent dick pics to female colleagues. …
After HuffPost broke the dick pics story, a former regular guest on Fox, Caroline Heldman, wrote a very damning post about Bolling on Facebook, saying, among other things, that he once took her to his office and “in the brief time I was there, let me know that his office was his favorite place to have sex.”
His stint at Sinclair seems to have had problems, too. As The Times reported, Bolling was such a conduit for virus-related misinformation there that the network edited an October episode of his show in which he said, for example, that “closing down cities and economies and wearing your tube socks around your face hasn’t slowed the virus down.” He announced his departure from Sinclair in January.
The Los Angeles Times noted that former Fox & Friends co-host Rob Schmitt and former Fox correspondent Greg Kelly are current Newsmax hosts. CNN's Brian Stelter pointed out that Newsmax “doesn't have many open time slots anymore, so when it adds a prominent host, that means someone else is losing airtime...”
Here's some of our "favorite" Bolling memories:
Eric Bolling Berates A GOP Congressman Refusing To Support Donald Trump
Eric Bolling Deflects: We Should Be Blaming Obama For Russiagate
Eric Bolling Apologizes For 'Boob' Comment - Again!
Is Eric Bolling Racist, Insensitive, Or Just Plain Cruel?
(Bolling image via screen grab)
As to the reasons behind Bolling’s gross behaviour, both on air and in his favourite place for sex, I’ll go with cruelty, followed at some distance by greed.
I’ve been watching “The Handmaid’s Tale” and recommend it to anyone who may have doubts about the deeply un-Christian nature of some of these fire-and-brimstone evangelicals.
Christ was not a fire and brimestone sort of preacher … quite the opposite. Gilead’s leaders and flunkeys get their endorphins from hurting others in the worst possible ways they can invent. Cruelty towards others (even those whom they love) is their society’s driving force. That’s precisely the sort of “faith” that reigns on Fox(not)News, and the move of hosts like Bolling to even more vicious channels indicates that hatred is, indeed, addictive, and that the addicts need even bigger doses in order to cope with a world full of things to fear.
I do wish someone would ask him how he’s doing with that 50 million dollar lawsuit he said he was filing against Yashar Ali. As we should all keep in mind, Ali had the temerity to report on Bolling’s downfall at Fox News, with an article that included comments from multiple women who’d been harassed by Bolling. Some of the women were angry enough that they agreed to have their names cited by Ali. Bolling’s response was to threaten his 50 million dollar suit. Ali responded with a promised countersuit, and Ali’s attorney pointedly reminded Bolling that he better be ready to turn over his cellphone and all data for the extensive discovery that would be coming shortly. All of this happened in August/September 2017. For some reason, we haven’t heard anything since about the matter.
Of course, there’s also the note that Bolling’s son died shortly thereafter, which led to Bolling trying to get everyone’s perpetual sympathy as a grieving parent. And while nobody wants to see any parent go through that, it’s a head-scratcher how his son’s death suddenly obviates years of Bolling’s terrible behavior both before and since that event.
I note that Newsmax is happily gobbling up whatever former Fox News faces it can to attract former Fox News viewers into its clutch. But even Newsmax didn’t want Matt Gaetz, who’s now frantically seeking a new position for when the boom comes down on his legal predicament in another month or so…