In her last column for Creators Syndicate, longtime opinion writer Michelle Malkin said she was leaving that craft because of bias, censorship, corporate-influenced journalism, and even hypocrisy among her fellow conservatives.
Malkin, who is 52, began her journalism career in the 1990s at the Los Angeles Daily News, where she wrote editorials and op-eds. She estimated in her column she has written more than 1 million words over that long period. And now she's done.
“I’m very disappointed. We need more soldiers on the battlefield, not less,” says Colorado-based talk host Jeff Crank. “Michelle Malkin has been a good soldier in that fight.”
The rise of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump saw many “Never Trump” conservatives run from him, including names Malkin named in her last column. That ideological split has over worsened over time, and Malkin has aimed her op-ed arrows at those "Never Trumpers" who were also shooting back at her.
Back in 2019, the conservative group Young Americans for Freedom dropped Malkin as a regular speaker after she praised and defended Nick Fuentes, an “alt-right” leader who was plagued with accusations of antisemitism.
Malkin’s writing style is gritty, in-your-face, and often bombastic. In an Oct. 5 commentary about a “Great Parental Replacement,” which is now the final one published by AFN, she warned unsuspecting parents their children are being targeted by freedom-hating globalists in the name of “health, safety, compassion, tolerance, diversity, intellectual superiority and, of course, the public good.”
Malkin is also a best-selling author and a savvy entrepreneur. She created political blog Hot Air and later the unique Twitter-related website Twitchy. Both online ventures were sold to Salem Media Group.
Crank tells AFN he is a frequent victim of political attacks and nasty, personal attacks, too. So he wishes Malkin had persevered despite the attacks and accusations against her.
“We have a country to save,” he says, “and there's gonna be people on the right and the left that you're going to have to fight.”
