BUILD THE DREAM: Rebel News is overhauling our studio!

THE PLAN

Today I want to announce the biggest plan we've had in years. Eight years, to be precise.

And I'd love your help with it, if you like our plan and see its value.

Rebel News is not a toddler anymore. We've been fighting the good fight for almost a decade.

My big idea is to set Rebel News up for a second decade of success. 

In the eight years we've been operating, we've published around 50,000 videos, written stories and podcasts. And then add in social media, too — hundreds of thousands of Tweets, countless posts on Facebook and Instagram, and every other platform you can imagine. We've literally had billions of views and impressions.

We've made an enormous difference. I mean, our scrum of Pfizer's CEO, Albert Bourla, was seen more than 20 million times. No-one had ever laid a glove on him — until we did.

We've made a difference by telling the other side of the story. Imagine if we hadn't been around during the pandemic or the trucker convoy! During the lockdowns, we became the de facto opposition in Canada. (It sure wasn't Erin O'Toole.)

The base of all of our operations is our studio in our office. It's our control room, it's the heart of our video and computer technology. It's our command bunker.

And while we've improved our operations in the field, and we've got better equipment for our reporters, we haven't updated our studio since we moved into our office years ago.

Computer and video equipment ages in dog years. An eight-year-old video component might not sound old, but it's like an eight-year-old dog — loveable, loyal, part of the family. But not young and fast and energetic.

Simply put, we need a new studio.

Because we've got to get ready for the next ten years of Rebel News.

So this is the big news I want to tell you about it. And if you like our idea, I'd respectfully ask you to help us build it.

Let me show you our plans, and the tools we need to do the job – and then you tell me if you want in. If you want to help build the dream.

THE TECHNOLOGY

For years, we've been using what's called "green screen" technology. It's just what it sounds like — it's a green blanket and I sit in front of it, and a computer replaces everything green with whatever digital background we want. It's 2015 technology, and it did a great job when we were little.

But it's time we grew up a bit. Especially if we're going to achieve our goal for the next decade of Rebel News: to actually have a larger impact on the national conversation than Trudeau's CBC state broadcaster.

And that's the big plan. To replace our home-made, green-screen studio, which served us well, with a state-of-the-art broadcasting centre that will not only allow us to do the shows we're doing now, but will let us do things we've never been able to do before.

WHY NOW?

Big panel discussions for TV shows and podcasting. Room for TV specials, like election night, with a bunch of panelists. Even room for a real studio audience. Obviously that's not going to work in front of a green blanket and a card table.

We have to grow up a bit now, and realize we're not just the home-made YouTube operation we were when we started in my living room back in 2015. We're the leading challenger to the CBC's news narrative.

We are Canada's largest independent broadcaster. We need a real studio. Not for its own sake — but so that we can do more, and do new things. More reporting, more commentary, more analysis, more podcasts, more special broadcasts.

HOW WE'LL GET IT DONE

We've hired a professional studio design firm. They've built studios for multi-billion dollar broadcasters, even for movie studios. They're total pros. And they started working on the project already. (That's why I've been doing my show out of our boardroom for now.)

Here's a sneak peek of how it's going to look when it's done:

Help us build our studio

What do you think? Do you think it's important to build a real, full-scale, high-quality journalism company to truly challenge the media party?

We've managed to hold the cost to just $70,000. Now, that's a rounding error to the CBC — they'd just ask Trudeau for that in a phone call, and he'd send it to them. Because he knows they're his propagandists.

99% of Canada's media is either owned or rented by Trudeau. We're one of the very few that don't take a dime from him or any other government. That's why we're able to speak the truth, even if the establishment hates it.

We proved that during the pandemic and the trucker convoy. The Media Party just can't be trusted and Canadians are desperate for an alternative. I think that's us.

We exist to serve only you, our loyal viewers.

I remember one day during the trucker convoy when we literally had 17 different journalists on the ground, coast to coast, covering the story of the year. We made a huge difference in that crisis. We stopped Trudeau's narrative with the truth, by going into the field to get it.

Well, we have to prepare now for the next crisis. Because you know it's coming.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

If you like this idea, please help us get the tools to do the big job ahead of us.

There are so many things we need help with. Most of it is the studio design and build itself — bricks and mortar stuff, or more accurately wood, plastic, paint, metal, soundproofing, and modern video and computer updates.

Lights. New microphones and cameras. Even electrical upgrades.

Can you help us out? You can see the whole list of equipment we'll need to build our studio of the future, here:

I think we've figured out how to build it for about the same amount of money that the CBC burns in half an hour. (I did the math).

Our crowdfunding page is sort of like a wedding registry, where you can choose from different parts of the project that you want to personally help us build.

Maybe you want to help us cover the cost of a tripod — we need three of them, at $209 each.

Or maybe you can help us cover our two new studio cameras — they're pricier, at $3,756 each.

We need two LED lighting kits at $1,150 each.

MAKE YOUR MARK

And one more thing. I want to tell you a way to permanently make your mark – literally – on our company.

As you may know, several of the walls of our office have symbolic bricks with donors' names on them — and little inscriptions. We have regular bricks. And we have cornerstones. And we have a few very special foundation stones — symbolically, supporting the whole place. I see those bricks every day. Our whole staff does. And it reminds us who our boss is: you, not Trudeau's Liberals, and not even the Conservative Party.

Every day I look at those names. And they look back at me, and they remind me of my moral obligation to live up to your expectations, and to work as hard as I can to be worthy of your gift.

So that's how you can literally be a part of our plan.

  • $100 gets you a brick on the wall, with a short inscription.
  • $500 gets you a foundation stone.
  • $1,500 is for a very rare cornerstone.
  • And just like the names of arenas are sponsored — like the Scotiabank Saddledome or Rogers Place — we're going to let one sponsor name the entire studio for a full five years. If you can cover half the cost of the studio — $35,000 — we will name the entire studio after your company.

Look, if we were the CBC, we would just get our money extracted from taxpayers by Trudeau. But we're independent, so we rely on our viewers. That's the better way to be.

When we were born more than eight years ago, people said we'd never make it. Plenty of politicians, and most of the rest of the media laughed. But here we are, bigger and stronger than ever. I can't believe how time has passed. It went quickly, because we were doing so much.

Just stop for a moment and think about what Canada would be like if there were no Rebel News — none of our journalism, and none of our advocacy campaigns, from billboard trucks to lawn signs to books to civil liberties lawsuits. We have made a huge difference. They hate that.

I love that. And I love the fact that we did it with your help. I want to prepare now for our second decade. And I want you to be part of it.

Rebel News is needed now more than ever.

Please think about what we can do together.

I'm so excited to see the new studio being built every day — we'll be ready to show it to you sometime next week! (Now we just have to pay for it.)

This investment in a new studio will pay off right away — it will make our broadcasts even more authoritative and compelling. Please help.

Thank you, and good luck to us all!

Ezra Levant

Rebel Commander

Ezra Levant is the founder and owner of Rebel News and the host of The Ezra Levant Show. He is the author of multiple best-selling books including Ethical Oil and most recently, China Virus.

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