Dana Loesch | |
|---|---|
_(cropped).jpg) Loesch in 2018 | |
| Born | Dana Lynn Eaton (1978-09-28)September 28, 1978 (age 47) Hematite, Missouri, U.S. |
| Education | St. Louis Community College Webster University |
| Occupations | Commentator, radio and television host, author |
| Employer(s) | Audacy, Inc. Radio America |
| Political party | Democratic (1996–2001) Republican (2001–present) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Website | danaloesch |
Dana Lynn Loesch (/læʃ/LASH;née Eaton; born September 28, 1978)[1][2] is an American radio andTV host. She is a former spokesperson for theNational Rifle Association and a former writer and editor forBreitbart News. Loesch was thehost of the programDana onTheBlaze TV from 2014 to 2017. She also hosts anationally syndicated weekdayradio talk show. Loesch has appeared as a guest on television networks such asFox News,CNN,CBS,Newsmax,ABC, andHBO.
Loesch was born inHematite, Missouri and raised by her mother, Gale, in an extended family ofSouthern Baptists. She claims descent fromCherokees in Georgia, who she described were "moved on theTrail of Genocide" and later listed on theDawes Rolls.[3] She is alsoof Irish descent through her paternal grandmother.[4] She graduated fromFox High School inArnold, Missouri. She later attendedSt. Louis Community College at Meramec before transferring toWebster University to study journalism.[5] While there, she was aDemocrat and worked onBill Clinton's reelection campaign.[6]
Following a pregnancy, Loesch dropped out of college and married, having her first child when she was 23.[7] Loesch became disillusioned with the Democratic Party after theClinton–Lewinsky scandal[8] and fully rejected it after theSeptember 11 attacks.[5]
After leavingWebster University,[when?] Loesch began writing forSt. Louis Magazine, doing investigative news articles, and began her website "Mamalogues". From 2006 to 2008, theSt. Louis Post-Dispatch ran "Mamalogues" as a weekly online column, winning LoeschRiverfront Times' "Best Newspaper Columnist St. Louis" for 2007.[9] Loesch started hosting her radio show in 2008; it became a nationally syndicated, daily program,The Dana Show: The Conservative Alternative, onRadio America from flagship stationKFTK-FM inSt. Louis.[10] In July 2008, Loesch was chosen as one ofSt. Louis Business Journal's top 30 Under 30.[11][12][13] She was recognized by theNielsen ratings as one of the Top 50 Most Powerful Mom Bloggers.[14] In 2009, Loesch co-founded the St. LouisTea Party along with its board president, Bill Hennessy,[15] but left the organization in December 2011.[15]
In October 2010, Loesch was hired to be editor-in-chief ofBig Journalism, a conservative website created byAndrew Breitbart.[16] In February 2011,CNN hired Loesch as a political analyst in preparation for its 2012 election coverage.[17] In 2012, Loesch was the recipient ofAccuracy In Media's Grassroots Journalism award.[18][19] She also guest hosted for other national radio hosts such asGlenn Beck andMichael Savage. In 2012, Loesch was added toTalkers Magazine's top 100 "heavy hitters"[20] and was number 24 in 2017.[21]
In January 2012, Loesch spoke on her show in defense of U.S. Marines videotaped urinating on the corpses of dead Taliban fighters, commenting that "I'd drop trou and do it, too. That's me though. I want a million cool points for these guys (Marines). Is that harsh to say?"[22]
In December 2012, after the death of founderAndrew Breitbart earlier in the year, Loesch sued theparent company of her former employer, Breitbart LLC. Loesch claimed in court documents that owner and operator Breitbart LLC bound her to "what amounts to indentured servitude in limbo" after she said she was forced to terminate her contract as the result of a hostile working environment.[23] She reached a non-monetary settlement with Breitbart in 2013.[24]
In 2013, Loesch hosted theConservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).[25]
In May 2013, after a series of public comments back and forth between Loesch andPiers Morgan onTwitter regarding themurder of British soldier Lee Rigby, Morgan vowed to ban Loesch from his show,Piers Morgan Live.[26] Loesch returned to the show in January 2014 after their producers, who were friends, arranged for Loesch and Morgan to work out their differences amicably.[27]
On January 10, 2014, Loesch debuted her daily TV show,Dana, onGlenn Beck'sTheBlaze TV. The show featured regulars such as author Benjamin Howe, and writer Brandon Morse. Loesch left in November 2017.[28] In 2016,KFTK-FM in St. Louis, her original radio station, dropped her show.[29] The show was picked up byWSDZ shortly thereafter.[30]
During the 2016 Republican presidential primary, she endorsed theTed Cruz campaign[31] while disparaging thecandidacy of Donald J. Trump.[32][33][34][35] However, according toThe Atlantic, since Trump's election Loesch became one of the Trump presidency's most visible "passionate defenders".[36]
In 2016, Loesch labelled the mainstream media as "the rat bastards of the Earth. They are the boil on the backside of American politics ... I'm happy frankly to see themcurb stomped."[37] When the videos resurfaced after amass shooting at theCapital Gazette newsroom inAnnapolis, Maryland in 2018, Loesch said she had meant she wanted some news stories to be curb-stomped and was not encouraging violence against journalists.[38]
In 2013, Loesch said on CNN she owned anAR-15.[39]
Loesch appeared inNRATV advertisements (Moms like me) as early as September 2015;[40] she held the post of special assistant to the executive vice president for public communication with the National Rifle Association (NRA) from 2017 until June 2019.[41] She hostedThe DL onNRA TV until the NRA ended production of the channel on June 25, 2019,[42] and she has featured prominently in other NRA-produced videos.
Statements made by Loesch in advocacy for the NRA have stirred controversy, and she has received death threats as a result.[8]
Loesch was featured in an online video published by theNational Rifle Association in April 2017. In the video, Loesch talked about an unspecified "they" and depictedprotests against Donald Trump in a negative light. She went on to say, "They use their movie stars and singers and comedy shows and award shows to repeat their narrative over and over again. And then they use their ex-president to endorse the resistance ... To smash windows, burn cars, shut down interstates and airports, bully and terrorize the law-abiding – until the only option left is for the police to do their jobs and stop the madness ... The only way we stop this, the only way we save our country and our freedom, is to fight this violence of lies with the clenched fist of truth".[43][44]
The video, known as "The Violence of Lies", was condemned by some commentators.[45]DeRay Mckesson, a leader in theBlack Lives Matter movement, said that the ad was "an open call to violence to protectwhite supremacy".[43]Jon Favreau, a former speechwriter for President Obama, called the video "revolting and frightening".[43] U.S. SenatorChris Murphy (D, Ct.) said, "I think the NRA is telling people to shoot us. Now might be the right time to cancel your membership."[46] Conservative columnistAnne Applebaum said that it called on Americans "to arm themselves to fight liberals. Violence is coming".[44] An online petition calling for the video to be removed from Facebook said, "The video tries to create an 'us-vs-them' narrative and pit Americans against one another. It paints liberals as liars and as violent, unruly protesters who law-abiding gun owners need protection from."[47]
Loesch defended the ad,[48] saying that it condemned rather than condoned violence.[43] She stated, "There was nowhere in this video ... where I called for anyone to move toward violence, to silence anyone, or where I called for anyone to even pick up a firearm and enact violence."[46]
In a second video released by the NRA in April 2017, Loesch criticizedThe New York Times, calling it an "old gray hag" and an "untrustworthy, dishonest rag that has subsisted on the welfare of mediocrity." She stated, "We've had it with your constant protection of your Democrat overlords, your refusal to acknowledge any truth that upsets the fragile construct that you believe is real life." Warning that her video should be considered "a shot across your proverbial bow", she concluded, "We're going to laser-focus on your so-called 'honest pursuit of truth.' In short, we're coming for you."[49]
After the second video received increased attention in August 2017,Michael Luo, the editor ofNewYorker.com, described the video as "strikingly bellicose even by the standards of the association."[50] Press groupDigital Content Next wrote a letter to Loesch in which it said, "Ninety-nine people out of a hundred would interpret this language about 'coming for' as threatening and to suggest otherwise is disingenuous at best and dangerous at worst. Bottom line: It is un-American to threaten journalists."[50]
In October 2017, Loesch spoke in another video for the NRA, saying, "We are witnesses to the most ruthless attack on a president and the people who voted for him, and the free system that allowed it to happen, in American history."[51] She added that critics of Trump are trying to "drive their daggers through the heart of [America's] future."[51]
In February 2018, Loesch said at the annualConservative Political Action Conference, "Many in legacy media love mass shootings. You guys love it. Now I'm not saying that you love the tragedy. But I am saying that you love the ratings." She criticized the FBI's response to warnings in advance of theStoneman Douglas High School shooting and said that the institution had become politicized.[52][53] Later that month Loesch said the NRA bore no responsibility for curbing gun violence.[54]
In March 2018, Loesch appeared in an NRA video in which she turned anhourglass and said to celebrities, politicians, and media figures, "Your time is running out. The clock starts now." She later said the video was not intended as a threat to shoot anyone.[55]
In September 2018, she said that thepolice shooting of Philando Castile was justified.[56]
In December 2018, the NRA settled a lawsuit filed against them by the artistAnish Kapoor over the 2017 video "The Violence of Lies", starring Loesch, by agreeing to remove an image of Kapoor's sculptureCloud Gate (popularly known as "The Bean") from the film.[57]
In June 2019, the NRA cut ties withAckerman McQueen, the advertising agency responsible for the production ofNRA TV.[58] Loesch subsequently lost her role as a paid spokesperson for the NRA.
In June 2021 afterRush Limbaugh died, Loesch's radio program, which had already aired in the same time slot asThe Rush Limbaugh Show during the last few years of Limbaugh's life, was picked up by several stations owned byAudacy, Inc., including her formerflagship KFTK-FM in St. Louis.[59]Radio America handles the distribution of the radio show and podcast.
Following the August 8, 2022FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, Loesch appeared as a guest onFOX News, where she characterized the search of the Florida residence ofDonald Trump as "stunts", "nothing more than Democrats trying to settle political scores", and stated that [President] "Biden's too much of an embarrassment" to stand for theDemocratic Party in the2024 United States elections.[60]
In October 2022, Loesch attracted press attention for a rally speech supporting Senate candidateHerschel Walker. Walker had been accused in aDaily Beast story of abetting his ex-girlfriend's abortion,[61] the story being then reported in many notable publications. Walker denied the allegation, which had not been independently verified by other publications at the time of Loesch's speech, and announced plans for a lawsuit.[62]Loesch's speech included the statements "I don't care if Herschel Walker paid to abort endangered baby eagles. I want control of the Senate!" and "If theDaily Beast story is true, you're telling me Walker used his money to reportedly pay someskank for an abortion, and [Sen.Raphael Warnock] wants to use all of our moneys to pay a whole bunch of skanks for abortions. So, it doesn't change anything for me!", which occasioned some commentary in the press.[63]
In 2000, Loesch marriedmusic producer[41][64] Chris Loesch.[5][65] Chris became Loesch's manager.[2][66] The Loescheshomeschooled their two children for eight years.[2][67]
{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)'They have now complied with our demand to remove the unauthorized image of my sculptureCloud Gate from their abhorrent video 'The Violence of Lies', which seeks to promote fear, hostility and division in American society,' Kapoor said in a statement released by the gallery that represents him.
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