TMZ‘s Harvey Levin has a lot of balls — even for Harvey Levin.
The entertainment site run by Levin, Fox News’ newest hire, is reporting that some of the blame for Chase Bolling‘s death resides in Eric Bolling‘s tumultuous work situation at Fox News.
A little over a month ago, freelance writer Yashar Ali broke a story for HuffPost, reporting that several women had receiving a lewd picture from the Fox News host several years ago. Fox News, which has been ransacked by sexual harassment allegations in the past two years, immediately went into “investigation” mode and suspended Bolling.
Since then, Levin landed a new show on Fox News. It’s called “OBJECTified.”
And on Friday, Fox News announced that Bolling was out.
Ironically, it was Ali who broke the news of Chase Bolling’s death on Saturday. He tweeted that all reports indicated that Bolling was a “devoted” father. Ali’s reportage in the wake of Bolling’s son’s death felt grotesque.
“Very sad news, Eric Bolling’s son, who was only 19, died last night,” he wrote on Twitter. “By all accounts, Eric was incredibly devoted to his son. Heartbreaking.”
A day earlier, Ali reported on Fox News officially canning Bolling. He cited his own reporting in the matter in almost every graph of the piece, including the deck.
Still, after setting the wheels in motion to destroy Bolling’s life, Ali was “heartbroken.”
That he broke the news on Bolling’s alleged sexual harassment issues at Fox News is fair. But that he had to weigh in and emote on his son’s death and Bolling’s abilities as a father is sickening.
Initial reports of “suicide” emerged. But there was no proof.
Later on Saturday, Bolling went on Twitter and announced that police had never mentioned “suicide” and he asked for privacy to grieve. “Authorities have informed us there is no sign of self harm at this point,” he wrote.” Autopsy will be next week. Please respect our grieving period.”
TMZ initially reported that Chase Bolling’s death was a “suicide” but later changed its headline. The URL, however, had not changed and still mentioned “suicide.” The site that claims a stellar rep for getting things right soon changed the headline to “OD.”
But so far there is no proof of that either.
TMZ had hinted at drugs on Saturday: “Well placed FNC sources tell TMZ … Eric Chase died from a drug overdose. We’re told he was having a hard time dealing with the trouble his dad was having at the network. Our sources say he was extremely embarrassed by the stories and was ’emotionally upset.'”
On Monday, this was upped to “emotional torture.”
Levin is starting his employment at Fox News on a low note.
And there’s really no other way to spin it.