 |
| John-Henry Westen and Stev Jalsevac |
The new head of LifeSite News is its co-founder Steve Jalsevac who sent out the message below. Is this the whole story? I doubt it and I suspect there are other issues. I was once involved with a contentious fight over who would run a pro-life organization. We ended up in arbitration. The primary issue had nothing to do with the focus of the organization. It was management style and personality conflicts. I'm wondering how much of that played into Westen's firing.
The fact that one of the reporters, Stephen Kokx, was also fired impacts the credibility of Jalsevac's message. As one of the reporters, Kokc clearly had nothing to do with the "business challenges" at LifeSite: the loss of readership, the decline in donations, etc; so why was he fired?
The second reason Jalsevac gives referred to staff sentiment and "safety" concerns which implies something more serious. If there isn't something more serious, it's slander sparking negative speculation about Westen's actions. At any rate, I doubt Jalsevac's message is the end of the matter. Read his message and see what you think. We sure didn't need any more drama! I seriously doubt this will increase readership or donations.
Please pray for John Henry Westen, Stephen Kokx, and all the staff at LifeSite News.
Dear LifeSiteNews Readers and Supporters,
In light of the recent announcement regarding John-Henry Westen’s departure as CEO and Editor-in-Chief, I wish to address the speculation surrounding this decision and provide clarity on behalf of LifeSiteNews. The board’s decision was made with careful deliberation, much prayer, and a steadfast commitment to our mission of promoting truth, life, and family values. We acknowledge the significant online speculation, much of which has been inaccurate, and we are very grateful to Bishop Joseph Strickland for his public statement calling out these misconceptions.
While legal constraints prevent us from delving into extensive detail, I can share that the decision was influenced by several factors, including a 72% drop in readership from 2021 to 2024 during John-Henry’s tenure as CEO, a decline in monthly and new donors, and other business challenges. Additionally, an internal survey revealed significant concerns regarding staff sentiment and safety scores, which further informed the board’s considerations.
We remain deeply grateful to John-Henry for his decades of service and his unwavering dedication to the pro-life cause. LifeSiteNews reaffirms its commitment to its mission of reporting on the four pillars of Life, Faith, Family, and Freedom. As we move forward, I, as one of the co-founders and now co-CEO of LifeSiteNews, will continue to guide the organization. We are dedicated to strengthening our mission and serving you, our readers, with uncensored reporting. We ask for your continued prayers and support during this transition.
Sincerely,
Steve Jalsevac
Co-Founder and Co-CEO, LifeSiteNews
In light of the recent announcement regarding John-Henry Westen’s departure as CEO and Editor-in-Chief, I wish to address the speculation surrounding this decision and provide clarity on behalf of LifeSiteNews. The board’s decision was made with careful deliberation, much prayer, and a steadfast commitment to our mission of promoting truth, life, and family values. We acknowledge the significant online speculation, much of which has been inaccurate, and we are very grateful to Bishop Joseph Strickland for his public statement calling out these misconceptions.
While legal constraints prevent us from delving into extensive detail, I can share that the decision was influenced by several factors, including a 72% drop in readership from 2021 to 2024 during John-Henry’s tenure as CEO, a decline in monthly and new donors, and other business challenges. Additionally, an internal survey revealed significant concerns regarding staff sentiment and safety scores, which further informed the board’s considerations.
We remain deeply grateful to John-Henry for his decades of service and his unwavering dedication to the pro-life cause. LifeSiteNews reaffirms its commitment to its mission of reporting on the four pillars of Life, Faith, Family, and Freedom. As we move forward, I, as one of the co-founders and now co-CEO of LifeSiteNews, will continue to guide the organization. We are dedicated to strengthening our mission and serving you, our readers, with uncensored reporting. We ask for your continued prayers and support during this transition.
Sincerely,
Steve Jalsevac
Co-Founder and Co-CEO, LifeSiteNews
There's definitely more to this story. Praying for John-Henry! He's always come across as a humble person and devout Catholic. May Our Blessed Mother be his strength at this time.
ReplyDeleteWell, if they're having business challenges their balance sheet up to 2023 doesn't reflect it. Net assets under Westen jumped from $500k to over $5 million in 2023. Revenue also went up from $2 million to $5 million annually -- but it's only through 2023.
ReplyDeletehttps://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/510634787
I wonder how much of the decline in readership and subscribers has to do with the overturning of Roe V Wade in June 2022.
Apparently Westen had gone back to criticizing Pope Leo (after renouncing his first video reaction which I can no longer find). [Apparently Opus Dei can no longer tolerate that because they are trying to get Francis' actions against Opus Dei reversed.] "In the days leading up to his removal, Westen posted a string of pointed critiques of Leo XIV on X. He questioned the motives behind the new “care for creation” Mass. He raised alarms about Leo’s appointments, particularly the pallium being placed on Cardinal McElroy. He shared Archbishop Viganò’s plea for Leo to abandon “Bergoglian synodality.” He even speculated that Leo’s election was engineered to bring disillusioned U.S. donors back into the Vatican fold. He knew what he was doing. He saw the red flags, and in good conscience, he couldn’t stay silent. And for that, he’s gone."
https://bigmodernism.substack.com/p/the-purge-at-lifesite-news-why-john
Stephen Kokx, after Westen was fired but before he was fired (maybe he already knew): "I’ve gone ahead and re-published my initial analysis of “Pope” Leo that I released just days after the conclave. I correctly predicted that Trad media would fawn over his fancy vestments and use of Latin. Beware of these wolves in sheep’s clothing as they are sowing false hope with their naive (and misplaced) optimism."
https://kokxnews.substack.com/p/what-the-media-isnt-telling-you-wednesday-dd9
https://kokxnews.substack.com/p/francis-20
I hope Westen re-posts his -- it's a classic right up there with Mother Angelica freaking out over trans-Jesus WYD Denver 1993.
Maybe LSN is just reverting back to their pre-Francis policy: "For quite a while after he (Francis) was elected I [Hilary White] continued to work for LifeSite and as John Henry said above it took a while for the editorial staff there to come up to speed [with the pope-bashing and reactionaryism]....If you’re actually interested in what I really wrote publicly – and at some risk since LSN [LifeSiteNews] wasn’t on board yet [with reactionary radicalism] – you can find quite a bit of it on my blog, Orwell’s Picnic, for the date March, 2013.
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/davearmstrong/2019/12/hysterical-reactionaries-opposed-pope-francis-from-day-one.html
To me it is like we have McCarrick 2.0 for Pope. Tobin, Cupich, McElroy--when I think of the altar boys and seminarians and all the youth that just disappear every year it makes me sick to my stomach. Just cover it up for money and power.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/08/01/the-bombshell-that-didnt-explode/ff09cdb0-7d64-428b-8415-a6998b9f0c65/
https://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2009/01_02/2009_02_07_Abbott_ArsonStrikes.htm
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/snapsurvivorsnetwork/sra-in-chicago-the-boys-club-murder-t2610.html
Yeah safety scores..........I have my doubts on that. People will claim feeling unsafe when someone looks at them "wrong". Sounds like they sent out a survey to bolster their plans. I'm skeptical. My husband has told me too many work stories where suddenly someone is a problem that until yesterday no one had a problem with.
ReplyDeleteI can relate though. I was president of a volunteer organization. It was failing and through hard work I recruited and implemented new programs. It basically became a full time job. Six months later we had the largest number of members the organization had ever had. We won a regional award. Members were making friends because more people were showing up to events. We were having a blast.
And so I got booted. To this day I'm not sure why. But even my close friends turned on me. They "weren't sure where I was taking the organization".Somehow the woman who replaced me convinced everyone that her vision of the organization was better than mine. Well, the organization faltered under her leadership and it took about 4- 5 years for it to stabilize after she was gone a year later.
LifeSiteNews (which is finished by the way) will go down as a textbook case of a well-intentioned, good-quality, Catholic media outlet that grew too big, lost its core focus, and became a corporation with a (always nefarious) board of directors. This whole saga reminds me of when Mother Angelica was pushed out of EWTN. Today, that once great alternative to trash television is so uninspiring, I can't bother to watch it.
ReplyDeleteIf you are a layperson thinking about going into the Catholic media business, follow the model of Mary Ann and Susan. Have a day-job or a source of income not reliant on a donate button (lay people should be supporting The Church anyway and not fellow lay people). Keep it small and focused and do not let it become a lay Catholic corporation with a board, filled with donor-class people.
Donor-class people are the RINOs of the Catholic Church. Just like with the Republican Party RINOs, the donor-class are focused on profit and/or politics. They will gleefully stab the faithful, boots-on-the-ground devout and then gaslight them in order to play nice with the nefarious characters running the Vatican - just like John Boehnner, Paul Ryan and company worked overtime to fake-support "conservatives" only to bully them once in power so Obama and the masonic uniparty could have whatever it wanted.
I posted this on my Substack but I'll also post it here... We all really need to stock-up on on printed books about Traditional Catholicism and the Church's Teachings (pre V2). It's only a matter of time before this satanic A.I. starts to aggressively censor the web, social media and the "news" on the television. If you thought 2020-2022 was surreal with all the censorship, just think about how bad it could be now that A.I. has advanced to where it is.